Loneliness and Food in Early Modern England

It is difficult to discuss loneliness for the early modern period, as it is a concept that does not translate directly onto the past. Food, moreover, tends to be discussed in terms of sociability rather than the absence of sociology. This chapter proposes a methodology for looking at food and loneliness in early modern England, which is to look at what foods were eaten at liminal moments when people were likely to feel separate to society. It suggests that foods eaten at liminal moments also had a distinctive flavour profile.