> Re 100 figure

I was lightening up the mood. There was a smiley :)

But on that topic, TC Fry was a huge proponent of raw (though vegan/fuitarian). He died 20 years earlier than my father who smoked like a chimney 

>  My experience is that almost all cooking requires recipes of s=
ome sort. 

Again, *recipes* take time, not cooking (other than the actual time over the fire, which can be just minutes in some cases). Let's not compare eating raw with preparing a seven course meal. Let's compare eating raw with jamming a chunk of meat on a stick, securing it with a rock, and doing something else for 10 minutes.

>This is partly because cooked-food is actually very bland in tast=
>e=2C so requires lots of extra sauces and spices to make it taste better=2C=

Your opinion. And, it really depends on the meat and its fat content.

 >but also even the slightest cooking requires some preparation time. When I=
 >prepare raw foods=2C in 95%+ of cases=2C it takes  a couple of minutes to =
>prepare=2C maybe 5. With a  standard cooked-meal=2C it took 30+ minutes at =
>the very least(assuming no highly-processed microwave-ready meals were avai=
>lable).

Let's see, the last time I barbecued a steak or chops it took all of what, 10 minutes maybe? This doesn't count the time it took me to start up the grill of course. 

>Then one has to take into account that lighting a fire in those palaeo days=
>=2C as well as building up the fire and doing the actual cooking=2C would h=
>ave taken absolutely ages by comparison to modern times.Palaeo humans=2C un=

I guess you missed my comment from a couple weeks ago. I am an outdoorsman, and I have endured a few bouts of survival training. It's *not* hard to start a fire once you know what you're doing. There are numerous methods besides the tried and true "rubbing two sticks together". And, while I was proud of my fire-starting skills, the guides who trained me could always get one started in less than half the time it took me.

>like us=2C weren't able to simply light up with gas/electricity and sustain=
> a sizeable fire in a split-second in the way we can. So=2C timewise=2C coo=
>king is a terrible waste of one's time=2C and certainly not opportunistic. =

Banking a fire to keep it live and burning for days on end is child's play.

>One can save hours of free time every week  by just going raw.

Methinks you exaggerate a bit. For me we're talking about saving less than an hour, and I'm sure that would apply to many others on this list. (After all, many of us are already 80-90% raw). Perhaps if you were a gourmet cook prior to going raw your statement might be accurate. And it's certainly not accurate if you let someone else cook for you (ie - the dining out crowd).

But, even if you are right, think about this. It's been estimated that paleos spent maybe 4 hours per day securing food for themselves. (And some think that estimate is high). But, for the sake of argument, let's up that to the 10 hours. That leaves 10+ hours per day for leisure activities. I'm willing to bet they spent a lot of that time experimenting with all kinds of crazy, forbidden things (like fire and cooking).