5 Ingredients or Fewer

Giddy Swamp South Carolina Hash

Name: Giddy Swamp South Carolina Hash
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: Makes 6 quarts
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: 5 pounds Pork shoulder/Boston butt; 2 pounds onions peeled and chopped coarsley; 1 pound potatoes peeled and cut into small dice; 1 cup cider vinegar; 9 ounces yellow mustard; 1 tablespoon salt; 2 tablespoons black pepper; 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 1 splash water to cover; 8 tablespoons unsalted butter

by: Bubba Mac

July 1, 2013

4.4

7 Ratings

Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 2 hours 30 minutes
Makes 6 quarts

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Author Notes

Story goes that slaves first and farm workers later had to use the least desirable cuts of meat. Hash, much like using the slow cooker today, was a dish created where everything was put in the pot and cooked for hours with an occasional stir. Once complete, it was served with rice or bread for a filling meal after a long day in the fields. More recently, it became a staple of fund raisers for the church, the firehouse, the Lodge or my favorite...the Hampton County Watermelon Festival. (Just ended June 30th 2013). My recipe is from the German belt of SC and uses pork and mustard prominently but other parts of the South might use beef, pork, tomatoes...even squirrel, rabbit or venison. I adapted my recipe (that served 300 people) for the pressure cooker that drastically reduces the cooking time. If you use a conventional method, you should monitor the liquid and stir frequently to avoid scorching and ruining the dish. I recognize this is not a pretty dish, but it more than makes up for its homely looks by its comfort factor. —Bubba Mac

What You'll Need

Ingredients

5 pounds Pork shoulder/Boston butt
2 pounds onions peeled and chopped coarsley
1 pound potatoes peeled and cut into small dice
1 cup cider vinegar
9 ounces yellow mustard
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 splash water to cover
8 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions

Cut pork into 2 inch pieces (include whole bones if available)
Cover with water by 2 inches and bring to rolling boil for 3 minutes.
Drain meat discarding water and rinse to remove grey blood scum.
Return meat to pressure cooker, add water to cover by two inches, close lid and bring to pressure for 20 minutes.
Release pressure. Remove and discard bones. Add onions. Cover cooker and bring back to pressure for 15 minutes.
Release pressure. At this point you have several options. You can use an immersion blender, food processor or blender to grind meat and onions into a slurry like consistency. There may still be identifiable pieces of meat left but they will continue to cook down in the final cooking.
Add potatoes, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and continue to cook on low heat for at least another hour or two. Continue to stir occasionally and add water when it appears too thick.
Check seasonings after first hour... you might have to add more vinegar. Hash should have a sharp bite and the black pepper should be pronounced. Add butter for the last hour. I know it seems strange, but the butter gives a slick texture to the hash that it needs. (and my original recipe would call for a pound of butter).
Serve over white rice or toast with a side of greens or cole slaw; as a side dish to BBQ ribs, chicken or pulled pork; or on a toasted bun, like a hash sloppy joe.

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38 Reviews

[email protected] May 9, 2022

This is how i cook hash but i don`t use potatoes and use a 75 % deer or beef 25% butts

Wood February 14, 2021

I like this hash recipe. I’m from Spartanburg/Union area of SC and was raised making a hash that consisted of a 50/50 split pork and beef . We make it in big black hash pots 15 lbs of pork ( butts) 15# of beef Chuck roasts 12# s yellow onions. 1 1/2 cups white vinegar. 1/2 cup black pepper, 1/2 cup salt . 1 # butter unsalted. Add enough water to cover 2” I split the onions in 3 bags after dicing them , add one bag at the start , 2 Nd bag 2 hrs in , and third 2 hrs from that rolling boil . Stirring with a 4’walnut paddle .I cook it down to almost no liquid . Critical time is the last 2 hrs don’t let it scorch . Should be a grayish color . I do a similar hash with deer and wild hog and add 2 lbs of bacon for fat content.

Bubba M. February 14, 2021

funny...I lived in Union for 5 years and then Gramling for a year....but this recipe came from my years in lower SC...I noticed, my recipe had the mustard but yours not. And yes, my original recipe for 300 would have been cooked over a fire or perhaps a gas cooker and in a cast iron cooker...and stirred with an oar....yes a boat oar.. You can drive 50 miles in the State and you will have a different interpretation of the same recipe. Glad you enjoyed.

Bubba M. January 17, 2021

The purpose of Step 2, is to remove the grey scum ... i.e. blood from the meat. You can use the sauce function on the pressure cooker to boil the meat, then rinse and proceed. Step 7 is low saute.

Brandon S. January 18, 2021

Thanks! I ended up trying Cynthia's way and doing step 2 on the stove. However, it became a pretty big mess because I didn't have a stock pot and had to use 3 different pots. But they got the job done, albeit messy.

I sampled the hash and it is almost spot on how I remember SC BBQ hash, so a very big THANK YOU for posting this recipe!! I'm looking forward to trying it tomorrow. One slight issue I had: I cut my potatoes really small but they still never fully cooked. I used those small baby gold potatoes that are smaller than a golf ball and chopped them up, but sampling them at the end, they were still crunchy. Could they go in with the onions in step 5?

Also one other note: I had way too much water shortly after the immersion blender step. When adding water to the IP to cover the meat, I was about a quarter inch shy of the top of the pot. As a result, halfway into using my immersion blender I used a bowl to drain some of the water out, pouring it into a colander to save the shredded meat. The remaining water got reduced in the last step in the last hour when I turned my heat up to medium-high. That too was messy as it started spitting out water onto my table.

But despite my rookie-ness with this recipe, it's all been worth it. I've always wanted to make hash, even better yet mustard based hash, so thank you again!

Just as a recommendation, I'd add your Saute clarification above somehow in the steps of the recipe. I have never used the IP to boil water other than how it looks after pressure cooking, so I was thrown off.

Brandon S. January 18, 2021

One other recommendation to your recipe: add Butter to your ingredients list. I get my ingredients out first before starting and totally forgot about the butter part despite it being in the Directions (I think it still turned out well).

Brandon S. January 17, 2021

For anyone that has made this recipe...

Step 2 says to bring to a boil. Does that mean using the Saute feature on high? Same thing for step 7 "cook on low heat for an hour". Is that Saute or Pressure cook?

Cynthia W. January 17, 2021

Hi Brandon. I don’t use a pressure cooker. I use a big pot over stovetop. As far as boil in step 2, I use high heat to boil then reduce heat to low for step 7. If it seems too hot still, I will switch it over to sauté setting. You don’t want it to burn on the bottom. Yummy yummy!

Cynthia W. January 17, 2021

It can be made without a pressure cooker. Just takes longer...

IronPig November 25, 2020

I've looked for a recipe like this!
My Mom's family is from Abbeville and I have nailed their style of hash, but when we cater people will ask for hash like Shealy's and have never quite hit the mark. Thanks for sharing!
I have half a smoked butt in the fridge that will become this recipe tomorrow! I use my Ninja to process the pork, brisket, chicken that I use in Aunt Elba's Hash recipe. I'm sure it'll do the trick here, too!

Will M. October 24, 2017

Followed the recipe with a couple of exceptions. No vinegar, no mustard, no taters and i used rabbit. It turned out AMAZING. ThE way I did it is what I grew up eating and calling hash.

Vicky C. October 15, 2017

I made this and it was horrible. Even my husband couldn't eat it and that's saying something bc he has an iron stomach.

Janson B. October 11, 2017

SHEALEY'S LEXINGTON COUNTY S.C. BAD @SS HASH!

Jameson C. October 23, 2018

I agree, ill drive an hour and a half to go get some

Linda H. November 16, 2019

I want Shealy's Hash recipe. Does anyone have it?

Charles B. June 9, 2017

This is delicious! I added some Texas Pete to this as well, and hit it with the immersion blender after 2 hours on low to break up any potatoe chunks.

Bubba M. May 7, 2017

love the Newberry...been there many times. I live in the northeast now and auction off a BBQ for charity for several organizations and I am shocked and amazed at what people will pay for good BBQ and how shocked and amazed at how easy it is to replicate .....and no one has figured it out up here....go figure. glad you enjoyed the recipe.....still tinkering but like what i have.....bubba mac...

Cynthia W. May 7, 2017

Love love love it! I make it frequently using your exact recipe. My father was from Newberry SC and this is just like what the local grocery store there sells! Thanks for sharing!!

Renfrow F. December 10, 2016

Bubba, you have hit a home run with this hash recipe!!! My batch is on the last hour of simmering. I just added a stick of butter bit might need to add more. Based on several taste tess along the way this is reminding me or the "Liquid gold" served by Dukes BBQ in Orangeburg, SC and Maurice's in Columbia. Five Star Southern Quisine!!!! My wife and I are haaving hash and rice for supper...{Period). Thanks for sharing this great recipe!!!

Steve B. February 4, 2017

Love me some piggy park in Cayce SC ! Will have to try this......

Bubba M. February 4, 2017

This is closer to Ray Lever's BBQ in Blythewood (now closed) or maybe Shealey's in Leesville. Always found Maurice's sauces and hash to be too sweet for my taste....try my Giddy Swamp BBQ sauce as well.

MicronCat February 2, 2019

My grandparents lived in Cayce for 26 years, and we ate at the Piggy Park every time we went down (we live in NC). We would often stop at Ray Lever's on the way home (the fried pork skins!!!!!)

I have always preferred SC mustard-based BBQ to NC BBQ of any variety. I LOVE HASH!!!! Just got back from Lexington, SC, and there's a bowl of Maurice's hash and rice calling my name... I'm trying to resist.

Anyway, I agree with you on the sweetness, but I canNOT see putting tomato in this stuff. Since your recipe calls for boiled meat vs. smoked, which is what is used at Maurice's, can you suggest how you'd make this if you started with smoked meat?

Thanks!
MicronCat

Bubba M. February 3, 2019

Never was a big fan of Maurice's ....but in a pinch I would eat it. If you have a smoked pork butt....and I have done this with the 2nd half when I made pulled pork....you would skip the pressure cooker step, cut or shred the pork, cook the onions until soft, add the potatoes, spices and water and cook slowly until it truly is falling apart, then hit with the blender, check your seasonings again and add to your taste. As with my earlier comments, you need to watch the pot so as not to scorch the meat. I use a heat diffuser under the dutch oven and cook as low as my gas will allow. Enjoy.

MicronCat February 3, 2019

Thanks much! I made the sauce last night - house still smells like onion, lol.

Joyce June 28, 2019

I haven’t tried the recipe yet. However, two words from you above and I’m a believer... “Ray Lever’s”. OMG, I’m 64 yrs old and have tried hash at so many places since they closed, and none compare. I’m almost bedridden due to vein issues, but I have to try and cook this.

Marlene N. July 31, 2015

Needs a little less vinegar and less mustard....and maybe add some ketchup when cooking

Dan July 18, 2015

Thank you for the speedy reply. Definitely excited to try the recipes. We're from Michigan so this will be a new treat.

Bubba M. July 18, 2015

Dan: I would start with a stick of butter and adjust to your preference. The butter adds a "slickness" to the hash that is necessary. When pork was fattier, you used less butter than now that pork is so lean. As for the Worcestershire, just omit it. I don't think it will change the basic taste of the sauce.

Dan July 18, 2015

Hi Bubba could you please tell me the amount of butter you would use in this version of the recipe? Also I have my wife is allergic to some sea based fish sauces. is there a good substitute for the Worcestershire sauce in your bubba mac bbq sauce?

Jackie May 31, 2015

I live in Illinois, from Saluda SC, I make this for my family and they just love it. Your recipe is just like my father's, he just use crock pot instead and omit the mustard.

Gladys J. May 10, 2015

I love this recipe! It is very similar to the hash served at Wise's BBQ in Chappells, SC which is my favorite bbq place ever.

Charles B. June 4, 2017

Wise's BBQ is my favorite BBQ restaurant in the world. I make a point to go there every time I got to SC.

Joan B. March 30, 2014

I would use a crock pot. I have found, however, that crock pots really zap the flavors out. So beef up the seasoning/spices quite a bit.

Bubba M. March 30, 2014

never tried a crock pot…but you can use a heavy bottomed pot…dutch oven etc….just make sure to continue to add liquids so as not to scorch the meat….you will have to cook for several hours to break down the meat.

arcane54 March 27, 2014

Lacking a pressure cooker (but having plenty of patience and time!) how would I prepare this hash... because I want some!