A Taste of History Cookbook: The Flavors, Places, and People That Shaped American Cuisine

What an honor to write the first review for this marvelous book! I discovered the "Taste of History" series a few weeks ago on Amazon Prime. I am old enough to remember my Grandparents farm, garden, root cellar, smokehouse, and wood burning stove. Fresh produce and meat then had a completely different provenance, and the farm life of an elderly couple in the 1950's had its roots in the last quarter of the 19th century. The connections between Walter Staib's cooking and my grandparent's farm life are beautiful and authentic. I offer a word of thanks for the memories that return as my wife and I watch the show.I just bought the book today and have been reading the recipes. The variety of vegetables used and the use of all parts of the carcass in cooking is truly authentic and highlights the narrowing of our modern culinary culture. The recipes are very well written and easy to follow for any home cook with a minimum of experience, and the TV show provides a visual guide to preparation.The surprise in the book is the number of recipes that even now are considered exotic, curries, chutneys, French, German, and Caribbean dishes are all showcased, along with root vegetable and meat dishes that are familiar to modern families. It is amazing how well people in that time could eat with mostly local products. But thinking back to my Grandparent's garden, orchard, and root cellar full of canned goods and root vegetables from the garden, smoked meat, and even homemade wine, it seems that they had a more complete and varied diet than I have managed with all of the modern conveniences.In any case, my recommendation is to watch the series, cook the food, and think of our ancestors and appreciate their good and varied lives.

I thought the "first cookbook" from A Taste of History would cover the first, and possibly, the second season. Instead, the recipes jump all over the place and very few of the ones from the first and second seasons are included. I will probably never get to season 12, for example. Disappointed!

I ordered this book cause I love his show. Don’t really care for Jefferson as I’m a John Adams fan. But these colonial recipes are excellent and make you rethink many recipes.. it’s great book- hard to get a five star from me - but this won’t be the last book I buy from Chef Staib.

Another triumph by Chef Staib from the historic City Tavern in Philadelphia. I love that he includes the season and episode on each recipe. I own all of his books and have tried many recipes with great success. He weaves history into the recipe. His books are my go to. This one will be no exception.

I just bought this for my dad. He is really enjoying the book and has already tried a recipe.He is a longtime fan of Chef Walter Staib as he watches him on PBS.

The recipes are very good and the chef is a master of food.

Love it and have watched Walter’s show as he prepares many of these same recipes and reviews American history. This is well done and fun to read and exciting to enjoy these old recipes.

Beautifully crafted recipe book with a tremendous selection of recipes to choose from. The accompanying pictures for each recipe is a great addition. Chef Walter Staib is extremely talented and is one of my favorite TV chefs on and off camera. Everyone should have this book added to their collection.