The dark, mineral-laden broth left in the pot after greens cook down low and slow — sopped with cornbread or drunk from the bowl. The most nutrient-dense liquid in Black Southern cooking.
Pot likker is sacred kitchen knowledge in Black Southern cooking — elders knew to feed the likker to the sick, to babies, and to the weak because it carried strength. During slavery and sharecropping, when the greens went to the table, the likker was sometimes all the children got, and it kept them alive. It is the broth of survival.
Pot likker is where the water-soluble vitamins and minerals leached from the greens during long cooking actually end up — vitamin C, folate, potassium, and significant iron and calcium dissolve into that liquid. Drinking the likker recovers the nutrition that pouring it down the drain would waste. For anemia, blood pressure, and pregnancy needs common in this community, the likker is arguably more valuable than the greens themselves. The single caution is the salt and pork fat traditionally cooked into it.
Cook collards or turnip greens low and slow with seasoning; the resulting liquid is the pot likker. Sop it with cornbread or drink it warm from a cup. To keep all of it, season with smoked turkey or a ham bone rather than salt pork, and go light on salt so you can drink the likker freely.
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