Pot Liquor (Pot Likker)

Not my cuppa tea, but if you must cook veggies half to death in lots of liquid, nearly all the vitamins and minerals will be in the liquid. The pot likker/liquor therefore should be used, because it has more food value than the cooked greens!

Personally, I like my greens very lightly steamed with minimal liquid, or briefly stir-fried. I don't think I'd do well with Southern cooking!

Collard greens require a fair amount of cooking to be tender enough to eat. You can cook them for a small amount of time, but they're not very good.

As I always say about a restaurant, you can get several sides of overcooked southern vegetables.

Donna, I grow my own tabasco peppers to be able to make pepper sauce to go with collard greens and other greens.
 
Not my cuppa tea, but if you must cook veggies half to death in lots of liquid, nearly all the vitamins and minerals will be in the liquid. The pot likker/liquor therefore should be used, because it has more food value than the cooked greens!

Personally, I like my greens very lightly steamed with minimal liquid, or briefly stir-fried. I don't think I'd do well with Southern cooking!

I'm with you @MaryDee! I like my veggies steamed just enough to make them, but still are crunchy and filled vitamins.

I was never a fan of collards, to me they taste like tobacco. I'm also not in love with cooked spinach, I prefer mine in salad.
 
Never heard of benne seeds.

5 facts about benne seeds

1. Whether you call them benne or sesame, both names technically refer to Sesamum indium. The plant’s wild form is native to sub-Saharan Africa, and cultivation began at least 3,000 years ago.

2. It’s no surprise benne is better known in Charleston, S.C., than here in Wilmington, says Shields. Benne was largely planted as an inexpensive oil alternative to lard -- a role served instead by the Carolina African runner peanut around the Cape Fear region. Sesame remained a significant source of vegetable oil until the introduction of Wesson cooking oil, made from cotton seeds, in the late 1890s.

3. Contemporary commercial sesame clocks in around 60 percent oil, whereas the earlier West African forms of benne known in Antebellum kitchens were closer to 45 percent oil.

4. Most sesame grown today is a variety selected for convenience and yield with non-shattering seed pods, meaning the pods won’t spontaneously pop open upon maturity scattering their harvest to the wind.

5. Even though they’re technically the same plant, Shields says it’s easy to tell the difference between heirloom benne and commercial sesame. He suggests to gently roast the seeds in a hot, dry pan until slightly toasty. Then mash the seeds with a mortar and pestle and compare aromas. “The smell of that is just extraordinary,” Shields said. “The flavor is just better.”

http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20170214/5-facts-about-benne-seeds
 
And did you know that black eyed peas were eaten every New Years because it was made a tradition after Sherman came through Atlanta. The Black eyed peas were left alone and became a source of survival for the people in Atlanta.
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photo credit: https://www.bluewatersmtnl.com/pot-liquor/

Collards, okra, black-eyed peas, benne seeds, watermelon, and eggplant were among the foods brought by Africans to America in the 1700s. "Pot liquor is the liquid left after cooking collards or other greens." The slaves stretched this broth by adding the pot liquor left over after cooking beans or meat and topping the mixture with cornmeal or flour dumplings. Pot liquor is enjoyed as a soup and can be accompanied with cornbread for dunking.

A recipe for pot liquor:

"Thoroughly wash two pounds of fresh greens, trim off the stalks, and immerse the leaves a few at a time in one and a half gallons of boiling water, to which has been added a quarter-pound piece of seasoning meat (ham hock or salt pork). Stir in one tablespoon of salt. Cover the pot and simmer for one hour or more, or until the greens are tender. As with cabbage or beans, additional seasonings such as onions and red pepper pods may be put into the pot. This amount of greens will boil down from a large mass to a more manageable amount--about enough to serve four people. After removing the greens, serve the liquid remaining in the pot as soup."

Recipe from: "Southern Foods" by John Egerton, New York, 1987.

Other information from "North Carolina's Soups and Stews" at http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/geography/soup.htm
 
Oh my, that does sound delish! Kinda reminds me of the old rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot 9 days old” My Mom says her Grandmother used to keep a pot on the back of the stove, to which she would add left over veggies and scraps. She said it was the most delicious soup you’d ever eaten. And always different.
 
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