“So dumb you need the recipe for ice” (food joke)

“So dumb/stupid you need the recipe for ice cubes” is a food joke that dates to at least 1983. The joke has been used in collections of Polish jokes and Texas A&M Aggie jokes (“The guy who knew the recipe for ice graduated”).
 
A similar food joke is “So dumb you need a half hour to cook minute rice.”
   
     
Stupid Jokes and Quotes
What’s the recipe for ice cubes?
 
Everything2.com
recipe for ice
(idea) by Wedge.net Sat Mar 25 2000 at 23:18:04
Place Water in a container.
Place in Freezer for several hours. While you are waiting for your ice, you may want to try activities such as watching paint dry, watching the grass grow, or other methods of procrastination.
       
Google Groups: net.jokes.d
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: Sat, 12-Nov-83 14:40:09 EST
Local: Sat, Nov 12 1983 1:40 pm
Subject: hurting peoles feeelings
 
if the joke is about tupiidity, there’s alwasys:
X is so stupid that…
which is to say there ust be an x, and so we must choos a form of obcscenity…making it a friend (my friend lost the recipe for ice)
(ice, byt he way is not that easy to make, so think before you laugh)
 
26 June 1989, Newsday (Long Island, NY), “A Funny Bone of Contention” by Marilyn Goldstein, pg. 6: 
Danny: “My Mom is so stupid it takes a half hour for her to cook Minute Rice.”
Peter: “My Mom’s so stupid she can’t make ice. She forgot the recipe.”
     
Google Groups: alt.stupidity
Newsgroups: alt.stupidity
From: cabbage
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 19:47:17 GMT
Local: Thurs, Oct 27 1994 1:47 pm
Subject: BOB & THE MOVIES
 
so, can someone give me the recipe for ice, i’ve seemed to have lost my mother’s.
 
18 January 1995, Fresno (CA) Bee, “In Search of Modern Rock”:
You’re so dumb, you need a recipe for ice cubes.
   
Google Groups: alt.autos.studebaker
Newsgroups: alt.autos.studebaker
From: JETman

Date: 1997/11/15
Subject: Re: StudeFord 289 (was Re: Wanted)
 
* Did you hear that they can’t have any more parties at a&m?
The guy who knew the recipe for ice graduated.
 
Google Books
Kiss
By Francine Pascal
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
2000
Pg. 44:
Gaia doubted George’s dumb wife could figure out the recipe for ice.
   
Google Groups: alt.music.garth-brooks
Newsgroups: alt.music.garth-brooks
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Gary Lighthall)
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 04:21:06 GMT
Local: Thurs, Mar 1 2001 10:21 pm
Subject: I think Billy Boy is gone
 
You said you have the recipe for ice?  Let’s party!!
     
IMAO
December 20, 2006
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Posted by Laurence Simon at 01:41 PM
Apparently, Polish lawmakers have way too much time on their hands.
(...)
Of course, this is the country that has to put the recipe for ice cubes in its Constitution to keep from forgetting it.
     
Food Network Humor
The 10 Funniest Reviews of Rachael Ray’s Pineapple Wedges
Posted on Novemb er 8th 2011 b y Jillian Madison
(...)
Rachel, do you have a recipe for ice cubes you could post? Maybe dumb it down a bit for the home cook? -The Noodle