"Cooking through the Centuries" is a cookbook not a recipe book. Although we have included around 415 recipes the number one goal of "Cooking through the Centuries" is to show how our ancestors and the Native Americans survived without gas stoves, ovens and refrigerators. In order to do this we have taken excerpts from Journals, cookbooks and magazines from as far back as the 1600's. These Folks had to cook over open fires, and use fresh or preserved foods. In a long-term survival situation we will find ourselves in much the same situation. Who better to learn from than our ancestors and Native Americans? You will find that they not only survive but, in most cases, lived very well using these methods. In many ways they actually ate better than we do today.