The term “potluck” is now commonly used to refer to an informal gathering where each person brings a dish of food to share. This concept of “taking things food-wise as you find them” may have originated from a previous usage of the term, as described in Alexis Soyer’s Cookery Book published in England in 1854. In this earlier context, “pot-luck” referred to various meat and vegetable soups or stews made in a three-legged iron pot.