Liquid Gold AKA Pot Licker ("Likka")

During slavery and colonization in the south African Americans drank and used “Pot Likka” as a remedy to prevent illnesses. It goes by a couple different names Pot Liquor, Pot Likka, or Pot Licker. What is Pot Likka? I’m glad you asked. Pot Likka is the broth that is left over from preparing a delicious hardy batch of southern collard greens. Seasoned and flavored with, but not limited to hot sauce, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, chicken broth, vinegar, and meat which is either, smoked turkey legs, ham hocks, or bacon. Well Containing many beneficial vitamins and minerals such as Vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B-6, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium, sodium, zinc and more. The nutrition from the greens is cooked out and left over in the likka. An old southern remedy and use of pot likka for children is to bathe their limbs in the licker to help a child that is slow to walking. So next time you fix them collard greens especially around the holidays, remember the centuries of history behind it, drink that pot licker up, don’t let it go to waste. Bonus Southern Remedies: Uncooked collard green leaves were tied to the head as they were believed to relieve one from misery and headaches. A poultice created from the collard leaves was used as a skin remedy to reduce inflammation, and cure abscesses and boils. Sources: Working the Roots by Michelle E. Lee, pg 282. Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, pg. 340, Slavery and Medicine: Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana by Katherine Bankole, pg. 146