POt Liquor (Likker)

Pot liquor was a critical source of nutrition for the large population of rural poor in the American South where the majority of people, usually enslaved African-Americans, indentured servants and poor European immigrants, could afford little more than one-pot meals. Nutritious greens, such as collards, turnips and mustard, were cheap and easy to grow in the hot and humid climate. Beef was reserved for wealthy elites, so the majority of the rural poor relied on pigs and poultry, such as chicken and turkey, for protein. In most cases, a pot of stewed greens was flavored with salted and smoked remnants of processed livestock such as pork ham hocks, the wings, feet, and neck of a turkey or chicken, or large chunks of bone. While slow cooking, the meat, bone marrow, and fat fell apart into the greens. The rich, meat-flavored broth, or pot liquor, left behind after serving the greens, contained high amounts of essential vitamins and minerals including iron, vitamin A and vitamin C. The nutrient-dense liquid was consumed as a warm beverage or soaked with cornbread. Yet the manner in which the cornbread is used has been the topic of heated debate. In 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression, Louisiana Senator, Huey Long, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt engaged in a lively dispute as Long insisted that the cornbread is dunked and Roosevelt argued that it should be crumbled into the soup. The debate not only added levity to a dark period in American history, it also attests to the economic importance of potlikker in American history.