Potluck

What it is

A potluck is a meal made by its guests. Everybody who comes brings one dish, already cooked and ready to serve, and the table fills up with a mixture that nobody planned in advance. Salads, main dishes and desserts all turn up together. It can be a lunch, a supper or a dinner, and it can be held in a home or in a hall belonging to a church or another group. What sets it apart from a feast or a dinner party is that the cooking is spread among the people eating. Sociologist Alice Julier names three things that shape the mood: plenty, variety, and not knowing what anyone else will bring.

Origins and history

The word is first recorded in the late 16th century and probably joins 'pot' to 'luck'. It described pots set over shared fires, where a person ate without knowing how good the contents would be. In North America that same idea shifted to a meal where guests each contribute a dish, though little has been written about how the change happened. Similar arrangements appear elsewhere, in early picnics and in the smörgåsbord that came before the 19th century. Early American potlucks were held by Protestant churches, which used them to raise money, to encourage matchmaking and to keep young people out of trouble.

From church kitchens

Protestant churches in the United States gave the potluck one of its strongest homes. Congregations used these meals to draw people in, to raise money and to build a sense of belonging. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the custom grew in immigrant communities, and by the 1930s an older scene, Norwegian farmers' wives carrying many dishes to share and pass around, looked out of date. Between the wars, churches and other community groups held potlucks to raise funds. When rationing began in the Second World War, a household could invite people over without feeding them all.

Manners and expectations

Potlucks run on shared assumptions. One is that a dish will be big enough for a good share of the expected guests. Another is that people arrive on time, chat without making a fuss, and bring what the occasion asks for. Sociologist Joseph Gusfield notes that the food gives everyone something to talk about, from tastes to cooking skill. Alice Julier, a sociologist, adds that all shared meals assume some return, but at a potluck the giving back is immediate: you eat what others cooked, and they eat what you cooked. These are among the least formal meals in American life.

Today and change

After the Second World War the potluck kept growing. Plastic containers such as Tupperware made it easier to carry a hot dish across town, and into the 1950s three-bean salads and casseroles turned up again and again. Casseroles suited the format because they stretch far and travel well. Cookbooks offered advice on running a good potluck, and the sense of social duty around them grew, until the writer Peg Bracken gently mocked it in her book The I Hate to Cook Book. Today the potluck still works as an easy way to socialize, free of the usual roles of host and guest.

How Potluck is kept

Guests are told what kind of gathering it is, then each cooks a dish at home and brings it ready to serve. The dishes are set out together, often as salads, main courses and desserts, and everyone helps themselves. Because no host has done the cooking, there is no host's menu to follow and no set order of courses. People arrive on time, add their dish to the table and mix. At church and community potlucks the meal may sit alongside a collection or a fundraising aim. At home it is usually just a way to spend an evening.

When and where

There is no fixed date. A potluck happens whenever a group decides to hold one, whether at a church, a club meeting, a holiday or an ordinary evening. Some are yearly gatherings, such as a congregation's regular supper. Others are called for a single occasion, such as a fundraiser.

The potluck is strongest in the United States, where it became a familiar church and community meal, and it is known across North America. In Britain the custom is not embedded in the culture. There, the same table of unknown dishes can be read differently, and a guest may suspect the host of being mean rather than generous.

What Potluck means

To the people who keep it, a potluck says something about sharing. Nobody is a host and nobody is only a guest; the meal belongs to everyone who brought part of it. Sociologist Alice Julier describes the mood as a mix of plenty, uncertainty and variety, since no one knows in advance what will be on the table. That uncertainty can be part of the pleasure, or, in cultures with different ideas about entertaining, a source of discomfort.

Questions people ask about Potluck

See also

Afternoon teaA late-afternoon spread of tea, small sandwiches and cakes, kept across BritainLangarThe free kitchen at a gurdwara, where all sit and eat together as equalsRussian tea cultureThe everyday cup of Russia, brewed strong and diluted to taste, with jam and sweetsYum chaA Cantonese breakfast of dim sum and tea, eaten slowly in large groups

Good reading and sources

• Potluck on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.