What is Pot Liquor?
Pot liquor is the liquid left in the pan after cooking vegetable greens. Also called collard liquor, it is made of collard greens, turnip greens or mustard greens boiled in water. The broth left after boiling a piece of beef or pork may also be called pot liquor.
Boiled collard greens have long been enjoyed as a regional cuisine of the southern United States, where the colloquial term “pot liquor” may have originated. In poverty areas where food was scarce, there developed a tradition among cooks to save the broth made from boiling the tops of vegetables. The concentrated liquid is full of vitamins and flavor, and may be used to make soups or gravies.
Many authentic southern US chefs insist the correct spelling is “potlikker” or “pot likker.” Southern cooks like to add a piece of salt pork or bacon to their collard liquor for a rich, salty flavor. Depending on the cook, a pot likker recipe can be unseasoned, or infused with a variety of spices and flavorings. Contrary to its name, it contains no alcohol.
Potlikker is often served with cornmeal dumplings known as dodgers. Made from a stiff mixture of cornmeal, shortening, water and salt, dodgers are somewhat like a steamed piece of cornbread. The broth is heated to a simmering boil, and the cornmeal batter is dropped in dollops on top of the bubbling liquid. After about twenty minutes on top of the pot liquor, the dodgers are thoroughly steamed and ready to serve alongside the boiled collard greens and pork.
The savory juices left in the pan after boiling a beef pot roast are another form of pot liquor. The chef may use salt, pepper, rosemary, bay leaf, garlic, and other spices to season the meat, and to enhance the flavor of the broth. The addition of carrots, potatoes and onions to the pan will add to the delicious flavors. Some chefs add cooking wine to liven up the flavor of pot liquor made from beef. The beef broth may be drizzled over the meat and vegetables, or it may be used to make a thick beef gravy.
Saving the liquid left in the pan after cooking probably goes back to the beginning of time. But, it was the inventive people of the hardscrabble southern United States that made boiling collard greens into an art. Whether it is called pot likker or pot liquor, this delectable juice will forever be known in the US as good old southern cookin’.
Written by K. Monteith
