本文處理與明代宮廷膳食制度有關的幾個面向，包括皇帝用膳時的情況、御膳的菜色、備辦宮膳的機構、宮中的飯食人數，以及膳食花費的金額。明朝初年，皇帝飲食較為節儉，御膳菜色種類較少；到中葉以後，御膳內容較為豐富，牛肉、牛乳、糖製點心亦有所增加，且主食由米食逐漸轉為麵食（即北方化），這是明代御膳內容的主要變化。在備辦宮膳的體制上，其所涉及的機構有文官體系的光祿寺、太監衙門中的尚膳監與宮女系統的尚食局。按照慣例，負責製辦皇帝飲食的是尚膳監，但在萬曆年間出現了由皇帝身邊有權勢的太監輪流辦膳的情況。這一既存體制之外的辦膳小組，可以針對皇帝特殊的偏好額外製辦，而制式的御膳則成為頒賞的恩賜品。明代宮膳體系為了辦理宮中膳食，編制了人數眾多的廚役，明初曾高達九千四百多人，後來漸漸刪減，至明代後期也有三千四百名。這些廚役除數百人支援尚膳監製辦御膳之外，其餘則負責造辦合計約一萬多名的宮女、宦官與辦公人員的飯食。經費支出方面，萬曆三十九年（1611）的一筆數字，是月支白銀一萬二千多兩；崇禎皇帝較為節省，每月花九千兩左右。

This study deals with several aspects of the system of serving palace meals in the Ming Dynasty: how the emperor dines, the dishes, the institutions of preparing the meals, the number of people that have meals in the palace, and the amount of spending on the meals. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the emperors were served with frugality, and there were not many kinds of dishes on the table. After the middle period, the meals of the imperial palace became comparatively abundant—beef, milk and sweets were increased. Besides, the main food was gradually changed from rice (food of southern China) to wheat (food of northern China). These were the main changes in the palace meals. As for the preparation system, there were three intitutions involved: Guang Lu Si (光祿寺) of the civil service system, Shang Shan Jian (尚膳監) of the eunuch's system, and Shang Shi Ju (尚食局) of the palace maid system. By convention, it was Shang Shan Jian that supervised the serving of the emperor’s diet, but it became gradually the case for the powerful eunuchs of the inner court to prepare emperor’s meals in turn after the Wan-Li period (1573-1620). This meal preparation group, which was outside the established system, was more able to satisfy emperor’s special appetite, and the formal meals became gifts awarded by the emperors to their favorites. For preparing the imperial meals, the serving institutions employed up to 9,400 kitchen servants in the early period, but its number gradually decreased to 3,400 in the late Ming. Among these kitchen servants, only several hundred went to the Shang Shan Jian for preparing the emperors’ meals; and the remainder were responsible for the meals of 10,000 palace maids, eunuchs, and imperial officials. The expenses incurred amounted to 12,000 taels in silver per month in 1611, and 9,000 taels per month during the Chong-Zhen (1627-1644).