Archaeology literally feeds on the residues and discarded remains of our ancestors" meals. Such material has spawned a vast field of research and scientific techniques looking at prehistoric diet and food so that we can now learn more about the residues found stuck to the bottom of a Bronze Age pot than what is at the bottom of our own freezers. This volume contains twelve papers given at a conference held in Sheffield in 1999 which consider the ways in which we study food in the prehistoric past - `culinary archaeology". Geared towards highlighting scientific tecniques that are useful in reconstructing food habits and cementing the divide between specialism, papers include: Domestication, food and identity in Late Neolithic Orkney ( A Jones & C Richards ); Early Neolithic diets: evidence from pathology and dental wear ( A Chamberlain & A Witkin ); Use of dental microwear to infer diet and subsistence patterns in past human populations ( P Nystrom & S Cox) ; Dairying, dairy products and milk residues ( O E Craig ); Mead, chiefs and feasts in later prehistoric Europe. ( E Kock ).