Pot likker is the spruce-green broth retrieved from the pot in which greens have been boiled. The greens—mustard, collard, turnip, dandelion—cook for hours, leeching vegetable goodness into the water (or, commonly, chicken broth) and giving it a tonic punch like no other soup.
It is customary for the greens to share the pot with a hambone or hunk of fatback, the pork adding a mighty measure of fatty animal savor to the vegetable leaves and to the liquid. But pork is not necessary, as evidenced by the pot likker and greens made at the Little Tea Shop in Memphis. Made without any pig meat whatsoever (proprietor Suhair Lauck follows halal dietary laws), this soup is verdant, radiating the energy of a plant with leaves that have marinated for weeks in sunlight. The likker is served in a bowl filled with sultry dark greens, the once-tough leaves cooked so limp that you can easily separate a small clump of them with the side of a soup spoon and gather it up with plenty of the liquid. At Mary Mac’s Tea Room in Atlanta, diners are instructed to temper the salty smack of their pot likker by crumbling a corn muffin across the surface, adding sweet, earthy heft.
Pot Likker
This meal in a bowl should be served with corn bread. Some dunk it; others crumble it onto the top of the pot likker.
3 pounds fresh turnip greens
4 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ pound salt pork, cut into small cubes
2 cups chicken broth
Hot sauce
1. Remove thick stems and thoroughly rinse the greens. Rinse them again twice (grit is a problem). Combine the water, salt, and pepper and bring it to boil. Add half the salt pork, and then the greens, mixing as they wilt. Cover the pot and simmer 1 full hour.
2. Fry the remaining salt pork over medium heat until crisp, but not burnt.
3. Thoroughly drain the cooked greens, saving all the liquid. Greens can either be chopped or left whole.
4. Combine the liquid in which the greens were cooked, the fried salt pork and drippings, the chicken broth, and a cup of the cooked greens in a saucepan. (Remaining greens can be refrigerated and served later.) Simmer 5 minutes, adding salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.
4–5 CUPS (6 SMALL BUT POWERFUL SERVINGS)