Poke Salad
In Southern and Appalachian speech, "poke salad" (traditionally "poke sallet") is a dish made from the young leaves of the pokeweed plant, boiled and cooked down into edible greens.
synonyms: wild greens, country greens, pokeweed greens
Hillbilly Dude Says...
When I was growin' up, I'd go with my neighbor from across the mountain to pick roadside pokeweed to make 'poke salad.' You have to cook it like crazy to make sure it doesn't make you sick. Pronunciation
[POHK SAL-it] /poʊk ˈsæl.ɪt/
Meaning & Usage
- Cooked greens made from young pokeweed leaves (noun)
Hazel:
What’s in that skillet?
What’s in that skillet?
Earl:
Poke salad with bacon grease - just like Mama used to make.
Poke salad with bacon grease - just like Mama used to make.variations: poke sallet, polk salad
★ Never eat poke leaves raw - the plant is poisonous unless prepared right. Traditionally, the leaves are parboiled several times before cooking. ★
Origin
The word poke comes from the plant pokeweed (*Phytolacca americana*). The term sallet is an old English word for "cooked greens," carried into Appalachian speech by early settlers. Documented in the American South by the 19th century, poke sallet became a seasonal dish when other greens were scarce.
Notes
- Poke salad is the modern spelling, but poke sallet is the older, authentic form still remembered in Appalachia.
- Best known outside the South from Tony Joe White’s 1969 song "Polk Salad Annie."
- Considered both a survival food and a delicacy in rural kitchens.