A Taste of History

     I was sure I had mentioned this PBS program sooner, but, I have been told....nope...only in passing.  So, tonight for the prepper who has food and a fire and still misses the microwave, or you have no real food preparing food over an open fire, you have got to watch episodes of A Taste of History with Chef Walter Staib.

http://atasteofhistory.org

     This man knows his way around a fire!  Whether an open fire out of doors or a fire on the hearth, this man has cooked over flame for so long, I have seen him handle pans from the fire with his bare hands.  I do not recommend it, but that is another reason to watch.  Chef Staib, his restaurant (City Tavern Restaurant in Philadelphia PA, an 18th century historic culinary restaurant and all of his awards and accolades can be found at http://www.staib.com.
Staib is a published cookbook author and offers several period cookbooks through this site as well.

http://atasteofhistory.org

     Chef Staib has offered four seasons of programming for your education through the Public Broadcast System.  The episodes are filmed on location in the kitchens, cookhouses, gardens and smokehouses of historic colonial American homes.  This program is more than a walk through the park or a sermon on the how-to....It is a reenactment.  
     If you plan to eat after TSHTF, you should know how to cook without a microwave, a grocery store on every corner and a refrigerator in every kitchen.  

     Our Forefathers did more than fight off the bonds of economic slavery and draft a constitution.  They ate well.  They ate what they grew or bred or hunted and they ate it.  It was not a beans and rice diet!  They ate very well.  They planted and planned.  They preserved and stored food for good times to come and against hard time should they come, and all while building a nation.  This program, A Taste Of History honours that sentiment.
     

     You will also learn a good deal about the fire and the science of fire as you watch it being built, and maintained and used a tool to cook.  The other tools and cookware used in the time are showcased and explained for it's use or worth.  Chef states his opinions as if what he is saying makes sense (after more than 40 years in the kitchen, it does!) and you know it does.  He speaks with the confidence of an expert but with the ease of a friend and confident.  There is no air of superiority spoken here.  Everything is explained.  Either the Chef repeats himself in casual conversation or the producers overlay a reminding definition at the bottom of the screen.    He sharpens his knives as he speaks, cuts the camera in close for detail work, then he visits the location and the park Rangers or reenactors who live the Colonial life everyday.  

     Whether you live a simple life or want to, or you follow a historic/ renaissance/rendezvous/powwow/campout/viking way of life full or part-time, there are things you can learn from PBS' A Taste of History with Chef Walter Staib.