Sara Pennell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Greenwich, UK. She is the co-editor, along with Michelle DiMeo, of Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 1550-1800 (2013).

One of [Sara Pennell's] great strengths is her painstaking attempt to reconstruct 'everyday' plebeian and middling kitchens despite scant evidence. She accesses every type of source imaginable, including published accounts, diaries, letters, probate documents, court cases, deeds, ephemeral advertising, architectural and cookery books, illustrations, and literary sources … Pennell's scholarship is not only impressive; her writing is accessible, elegant, and witty.

• List of figuresAcknowledgementsNote on the textAbbreviations1. Where's the Kitchen?2. Dream Kitchens? Imagining the Pre-Modern Kitchen3. Locating the 'Kitchen'4. The 'Power House': Technologies in the Kitchen5. 'Kitchen Stuff': Useful Things in the Kitchen6. Peopling the Kitchen7. Kitchen Moralities8. The Kitchen DisplayedNotesBibliographyIndex