Pottage is a thick soup or stew of vegetables, or meat and vegetables, one of the oldest and most universal dishes in human cookery. For most of history, the pot hanging over the fire contained whatever was available: roots, beans, grains, scraps of meat, simmered into a nourishing one-pot meal that fed families from medieval England to peasant kitchens worldwide. The word survives in “pottage” and the French “potage,” and the dish survives as every culture’s hearty soup, from minestrone to borscht to gumbo. Nutritionally, pottage was and is exemplary: varied vegetables, legumes, and grains combine into a balanced, fibre-rich, economical meal. Its endless adaptability made it the original convenience food, and its spirit lives on in the modern enthusiasm for one-pot cooking.