Anne Lister's cuisine

Published on 01 December, 2020 · Last updated on 6 September, 2022

The evolving menu of Anne Lister

Do you like raw eggs and wine for breakfast? What about boiled milk and a side of gin? Maybe soup and salmon is more up your alley. Whatever your preference, all of these menu items were part of Anne Lister's diet. As with everything in life, Miss Lister tracked her diet in detail, often providing a thorough review of the experience, especially while traveling. These details are essential in understanding Anne as a person and the world around her.

More than just boiled milk

Our goal is to record all mentions of food and drink documented by Anne in her journals and correspondence. The food and drink data that we gather can provide valuable insights into 19th-century life and offer unique research opportunities. In addition to food and drink, Anne Lister provides a unique narrative abounding with health details, including the state of her bowels and urination experiences. Analyzing both her diet and health will promote a better understanding of her life and self.

We invite everyone to join us in collecting these references. Whether you are actively transcribing and have time to gather fresh content or you want to assist transcribers and pull information from blogs, anyone and everyone can participate. Someone may be inspired to eat like Anne Lister!

Reference Tracker: Food & drink

Contributors

This project is made possible through ongoing contributions from the following people:

  • Allison Kirchgasser

  • Amanda Pryce

  • Dawn Susan

  • Erin Resso

  • Jan Webster

  • Janneke Vanderweijden

  • Jenna Beyer

  • JY Jiang

  • Kay Pollock

  • Leila Straub

  • Lívia Labate

  • Lynn Shouls

  • Marlene Oliveira

  • Shantel Smith

  • Steph Gallaway

  • Succotash Lindsey

  • Susan Miller

  • Susanne Piotrowski

  • Ylva Nilson

How to contribute to this project

  1. Request access to edit the spreadsheet. Please include an email address that is associated with a Google account (this is the only requirement to participating in this project). If you don't have one, here's how to do it.

  2. You will receive an email confirming you have editorial access.

  3. Once granted access, you can add a new item to the bottom of the list.

Tip: Don't be too concerned with redundancy; enter any information you have and we'll reconcile duplicates later.

Data in this spreadsheet is in English, but please preserve names of people and food/drink as written by Anne Lister and others.

Anyone can help research and add additional information for each references in this spreadsheet.