pot liquor
The rich broth left after boiling greens or beans.
Also called potlikker, pot likker.
Updated September 24, 2026
pot liquor pronunciation
/PAHT LICK-er/
Meaning
When you simmer collards, turnip greens, or beans with a piece of pork, the water turns into something worth saving. That leftover juice is pot liquor. Southern cooks dunk cornbread in it, sip it as broth, or spoon it over the greens. Folks who write potlikker are spelling how it sounds when likker means liquor in kitchen talk.
How folks use it
- “Save that pot liquor for the cornbread. Don't you dare pour it out.”
- “He mopped up the last of the pot liquor like it was the best part of supper.”
Origin and etymology
English compound of pot plus liquor, in print by the mid-1700s. In the South it stuck as kitchen gold, especially with greens. Enslaved cooks and poor rural families knew the vitamins stayed in the liquid. Many Southerners insist on the one-word spelling potlikker.
Frequently asked questions
Is pot liquor the same as potlikker?
Same stuff. Pot liquor is the dictionary spelling. Potlikker is how a lot of Southern folks write what they say.