Steamboat Springs — Imagine singeing the hair off a beaver tail, baking without baking soda, attempting to coax just the right amount of heat from a burning beast of a wood stove or canning for hours on end to preserve the sweet taste of summer peaches into the impending winter.

It took a certain amount of bravery and ingenuity to cook when the first few residents settled in the Yampa Valley in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“Some of those early women really depict the character of our valley, because people were brave enough to live here and were able to and willing to make a good life, with food being a reflection of that possibility,” said Nancy Mucklow, a Steamboat resident who helped assemble the “Fair Family Favorites” cookbook. “Some recipes talk about artichokes and bringing pieces of their past or places they had been and augmenting their life here. I have a lot of admiration for those women who raised a family and served some amazing meals in a place like this, because it took a lot of ingenuity and tenacity on their part.”

At noon Friday, the Tread of Pioneers Museum will launch the first program in a new three-part series, “A Taste of History.” Featuring historic recipes, cooking methods and tastings of the local heritage, the workshops will begin with “Old-Fashioned Woodstove Recipes,” which will discuss the harsh realities of wood stove cooking, as well as offer tips and tricks to utilize such stoves.

On Feb. 26, the program will honor a longtime local with “Recipes and Stories of the late Elaine Gay.” Gay was best known for her pies, French bread and fudge, and the program will showcase a few recipes prepared by her family and friends that are published in her 1990 cookbook “Cowpokes, Cowpies & Otherwise: Recipes of the Old West.”

Then, on March 25, the cooking program will feature “Old Recipes from Family Farms,” which will focus on canning, growing and drying local food, in addition to sampling recipes.

“The impetus for why we wanted to do this is that people love to eat,” said Candice Bannister, executive director of Tread of Pioneers Museum. “It’s a hobby and interest for people that is also a multisensory experience that I feel like takes you back to different times. For us, it’s a way to honor history and bring back memories.”

For Gay’s grandson, Todd Hagebuch, the love and passion for cooking held by women such as Gay was instilled in his mother and later, in him.

“A lot of older cooks can get locked into some of their favorite old recipes and don’t have a desire to move beyond those,” said Hagebuch, who will be preparing his grandmother’s famous bread recipe for the museum’s new series. “But as long as shem (Gay) was actively cooking — up until a few years ago — she was still still creating new recipes, trying new things and was still passionate about creating food. That inspired me the most.

“Sometimes the old ways are still the best ways. There’s nothing like the smell of real, fresh-baked bread and the taste or experience of that and homemade pies or things of that nature. It’s so much better for you, and it tastes so much better.”

To reach Audrey Dwyer, call 970-871-4229, email adwyer@ExploreSteamboat.com or follow her on Twitter @Audrey_Dwyer1