Mike:

It's a good question:   "How did cooking before and after the
agricultural revolution differ?"

I've given some thought to this, and how this process may have supported
the development of civilization.   I am sure that we can locate the
history of technology, that is, the history of materials processing,
right in the kitchen and its history.  I suspect that it begins with
spears, bone and flint knives, for hunting and skinning, eating raw or
lightly cooked over coals (probably 2-3 million yrs ago), to hot-rock
ovens and open spits, for searing, low-flame cooking/roasting; (likely
1.8 - 2.0 million yrs ago)...to clay-fired earthenware (the first
Neolithic pottery  is dated at 8500 BC)  - not for for cooking "in" -
that would take another 4000 years, but as a covering for the fire to
allow for slower cooking -- the beginning of the oven. And earthenware
made nice bowls too, bringing everyone a bit closer!  Later, plant gums
and pottery glazes made the bowls waterproof and then cauldron-sized
bowls could be placed over fire on a tripod.    Cookery on a larger
scale was plainly necessary for more permanent settlement along and more
serious agricultural development.    Roughly around this time (5000-3500
BC), casted clay-fired pipes made possible larger scale irrigation and
population densities, (beginning with the near-East, specifically
Mesapotamia and elsewhere).  This is where we see the beginnings of the
city-state, standing armies, and the beginning of slavery and other
forms of indentured labor.  It becomes possible to feed larger amount of
people with more grain which was then (as it is to this day) cheaper
than protein.  With castings, storage tanks could be made to keep the
state functional right through the dry season keeping workers and
soldiers fed and watered.  This leads finally to the period of the
Bronze Age (roughly 3500 BC) and the further development of the
city-state, until roughly 1200 BC, which, interestingly, corresponds to
the time of the Exodus from Egypt in the Old Testament, that is, the
beginning of the Iron Age.


 From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookware_and_bakeware#History

Knowledge of cooking vessels before the development of pottery
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery> is minimal due to the limited
archaeological evidence. It has been possible to extrapolate likely
developments based on methods used by latter peoples. Among the first of
the techniques believed to be used by stone age
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_age> civilizations were improvements
to basic roasting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roasting>. In addition
to exposing food to direct heat from either an open fire or hot embers
it is possible to cover the food with clay or large leaves before
roasting to preserve moisture in the cooked result. Examples of similar
techniques are still in use in many modern cuisines.

Of greater difficulty was finding a method to boil water. For people
without access to natural heated water sources, such as hot springs, it
was possible to prepare a small pit lined with stones and filled with
water. Heated stones could then be placed in the water to raise its
temperature. In many locations the shells of turtles
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle> or large mollusks
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollusk> provided a source for waterproof
cooking vessels. Bamboo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo> tubes
sealed at the end with clay would have provided a usable container in
Asia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia>, while the inhabitants of the
Tehuacan Valley
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tehuacan_Valley&action=edit>
began carving large stone bowls that were permanently set into a hearth
as early as 7000 BC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7000_BC>. A final
cooking vessel available to early civilizations were the stomachs
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach> from animals killed by hunters.

The development of earthenware
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthenware> pottery allowed for the
creation of fireproof cooking vessels in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Coating the earthenware with some type of plant gum, and latter pottery
glazes <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaze#Pottery_glazes>, converted
the porous container into a waterproof vessel. The earthenware cookware
could then be suspended over a fire through use of a tripod or other
apparatus, or even designed to be placed directly into a fire or coal
bed. The development of bronze <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze> and
iron <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron> metalworking skills allowed for
cookware made from metal to be manufactured although adoption of the new
cookware was slow due to the much higher cost. After the development of
metal cookware there was little new development in cookware, with the
standard Medieval <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval> kitchen
utilizing a cauldron <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauldron> and a
shallow earthenware pan for most cooking tasks with a spit
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spit_%28cooking_aide%29> employed for
roasting.

By the 17th Century <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_Century>, it was
common for a western kitchen to contain a number of skillets, baking
pans, a kettle, and several pots along with a variety of pot hooks, and
trivets. In the American colonies
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_colonies>, these items would
commonly be produced by a local blacksmith
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith> from iron while brass or
copper vessels were common in Europe
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe> and Asia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia>. Improvements in metallurgy during
the 19th <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century> and 20th
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century> centuries allowed for pots
and pans from metals such as steel, stainless steel and aluminum to be
economically produced.