Archival Film: Carolina Hash (Hot, spicy meat-gravy of the South Carolina)

Carolina Hash (2008) by Stan Woodward - http://www.folkstreams.net/film,215


The true origins of CAROLINA HASH can be traced to the Carolina rice kitchens on plantations where black food artisans were required to make the most of the lesser parts of the hog at slaughter. They created a high-protein, thick “meat-gravy” flavored with hot spices familiar to their palate ladled over rice to provide energy for the rigorous labor required in working the rice fields.

Today in the Upcountry from border-to-border you will find a beef-based hash with a twang that’s different from the pork hash found with their different sauces based on the region of the State. These traditions, in many restaurants and in the hash houses on many farms or churchyards or Volunteer Fire Departments, have been "Grandfathered-in", using black iron kettles in which many decades of hash traditions by local hash-masters occur. But as the documentary shows as it pursues the mission of folk heritage preservation, these traditions are rapidly disappearing.

This documentary tells the story of the SC hash tradition in hopes that a new generation of South Carolinians who did not originate from here will come to appreciate the uniqueness and artisanship that is in CAROLINA HASH.

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And when you are too po' to afford any pig at all, you just ladle some black-eyed peas over the rice and call it "Hoppin' John".

Hash and Frogmore stew, things I remember from S.C. Frogmore stew is like a paella with a Low Country twist. Oh, yeah shag music and dancing...dang I had a lot of fun there.