The foods people catch, cook, and eat often tell us a great deal about a society during a given time period. By examining both the tools and methods of the kitchen as well as the menus and mores of those eating the products, Katherine McIver offers an historical glimpse into the medieval Italian kitchen.

1 Cooking in the Middle Ages: An Introduction
The Cook and the Written Word: Medieval Cookbooks
The Literary Sources: Poems, Short Stories, Household Inventories and
Personal Letters
2 The Cook and his Staff
Hierarchy in the Kitchen
The Datini Cook or Women in the Kitchen
3 The Cook and his Kitchen
The Kitchen
Kitchen Equipment
The Datini Kitchens
4 The Cook and his Resources
The Ingredients
Food Preparation Techniques
Cooking Methods and Techniques
5 Bringing the Meal Together
Planning and Making a Meal
Orchestrating and Serving the Meal
Cooking and Eating with the Datini