Entry · catalog no. 1091
pot liquor
/ /pɒt ˈlɪkər/ /pot LIK-er
noun · American South · 1800s
✓ Verified
1.
The seasoned liquid left in the pot after simmering greens — collard, turnip, or mustard — with smoked meat. Prized, sopped with cornbread, and treated as a food in its own right. Also 'potlikker.'
“Don't pour that out — the pot liquor's the best part.”
Origin & Attribution
A cornerstone of Southern Black foodways, born of necessity: enslaved cooks, given the scraps and stems of greens, boiled them down and kept the rich broth to feed their own families. Carried into soul food. The folk pronunciation 'likker' is the older, truer form.
antebellum South
Enslaved cooks save the pot likker from greens
1931
Huey Long's 'pot likker and cornbread' debate makes national papers
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
American South · 1800s
Spoken by
Black Southerners; soul food tradition
$POTLIQThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady156 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
78/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1870
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Huey Long's widely reported 'pot likker and cornbread' remarks — 1931
press · documented
■
+ Cite a source'Pot liquor,' Wikipedia; Southern foodways histories
reference
See also