‘Hunger Added the Best of Sauce’: The Foodways of Women Innkeepers in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, <i>c</i>. 1770–1840

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, English and Scottish gentry-class travellers took journeys into the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and wrote about their experiences. They made observations about foods, especially meals cooked and served by women innkeepers, at accommodations along the way. By analyzing written travellers’ accounts, this study uncovers foodways and the daily lives of women who were working—and cooking—as innkeepers in the Highlands and Islands, circa 1770 to 1840. It establishes that, with some noted exceptions, foods that women innkeepers offered at inns were repetitive for reasons of choice, economy, familiarity with practices, and labour efficiencies. Habitus, including preferences for certain foods and forms of service, greatly influenced guests’ reviews, reinforcing class and cultural differences between travellers and innkeepers. This article argues, however, that despite these differences, guests acknowledged and appreciated how innkeepers made concerted efforts to appease their tastes and abate hunger, reinforcing the idea that women innkeepers had power and agency as they leveraged their kitchen meshwork. Finally, despite a common narrative of the ‘bad Highland inn,’ the evidence discussed suggests that guests felt women innkeepers excelled at some meals, saying the food was at times unexpectedly plentiful and delicious.