"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.

Regardless of what you may have heard short-term survival, we are talking two or three days up to ten days, is really quite simple. Don't get me wrong I am not trying to diminish the danger of a short-term survival situation. All I am saying is that unless you are injured or in a harsh environment survival is not going to be as difficult as you have probably been led to believe.

Our goal with "Short-Term Survival Guide" is to debunk some of the erroneous information that is out there concerning short-term survival. Many of the survival sights as well as many of the survival books would lead you to believe that if you become stranded or lost for whatever reason your life is in imminent peril. They lead you to believe that without food or water you will perish within hours, this is a completely false concept. This is a dangerous concept which leads to panic. Panic is greatest danger is a survival situation.

You don't have to go to a survival camp to learn how to survive. You don't need to learn to rub two sticks together to start a fire, or how to make a solar still in order to have water. We explain how you can prepare so with a few simple items you won't have rub sticks together, eat bugs or drink contaminated water.