| Pot liquor | |
| Alternate Name: | potlikker, collard liquor |
| Country: | United States |
| Region: | Southern United States |
| Type: | Soup |
| Main Ingredient: | Liquid from boiling greens (collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens); sometimes salt, smoked pork or smoked turkey |
Pot liquor, sometimes spelled potlikker or pot likker,[1] is the liquid that is left behind after boiling greens (collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens) or beans. It is sometimes seasoned with salt and pepper, smoked pork or smoked turkey. Pot liquor contains high amounts of essential vitamins and minerals including iron, vitamin A and vitamin C. Especially important is that it contains high amounts of vitamin K, which aids in blood clotting. Another term is collard liquor.
Former governor and U.S. senator Zell Miller of Georgia wrote a defense of the traditional spelling "potlikker" in The New York Times.[2]
Much earlier, in his autobiography, Every Man a King, governor and U.S. senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr., of Louisiana, defined "potlikker", a favorite of his country political supporters, as
The practice of consuming potlikker was commonly employed by slaves in the United States to concentrate nutrients from vegetables.[3]