Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Home
  • History and Genealogy
  • In Search of Cambridge Hash

In Search of Cambridge Hash

Posted on March 20, 2021March 20, 2021 By Tom 5 Comments on In Search of Cambridge Hash
History and Genealogy, Miscellaneous
Ingredients? Do you really want to know the ingredients?

Some while back fellow paddler and geocacher Larry Easler posted a photo of a can label on Facebook. It was the label for Cambridge Hash. That garish orange, red, and blue label brought back a flood of memories. What I didn’t realize until Larry, who is from Ninety Six, posted this, is that “Cambridge” has nothing to do with the cities in either England or Massachusetts, but comes from the old name for Ninety Six, South Carolina. Spurred on my recent trip down that way, I decided I needed to find out more about this delicacy.

As a True Southerner™ I love hash. I’m not talking about that mostly potato abomination called corned beef hash.

Corned beef abomination
(OK, full disclosure – I’ve never tasted corned beef hash. I actually like corned beef, so I’d probably really like it.)
photo from Simply Recipes

Neither am I talking about hash browns (which I do like, but as a True Southerner™ I’ll always opt for grits.) No, I’m talking about the grayish-brown snout-to-tail spicy concoction that consists mostly of stringy bits of nearly liquified pork.

photo from Midway BBQ, Union, SC, by M. Phipps Tessnear

Sometimes it’s referred to as “BBQ Hash” to differentiate it from all those other concoctions. And, as with BBQ, there is no shortage of opinions about which is the best hash and which regional variants are the tastiest. Like pulled-pork BBQ, there are mustard-based and tomato-based variations. There are differences in ingredients and the coarseness of the grind. What they have in common is that all of these variations were based on a way to use the whole hog and to stretch a resource so as to feed the maximum number of people as economically as possible.

With our large family, feeding a group of growing kids economically was a priority and hash buns were a regular feature of our diet. Most of the time it would be cans of Cambridge Hash purchased from the local Piggly Wiggly. On special occasions we would have hash from Wise’s Barbecue in Newberry. While on his way to the occasional meeting in Columbia Dad would stop by and get several quarts. Mom would put most of it in the freezer.

My last encounter with Cambridge Hash was as a freshman at Furman. I was living in an apartment off-campus and didn’t have a meal ticket, so I had to fend for myself as frugally as possible. I was in Winn-Dixie at University Square when I picked up a can of Cambridge. A sorority socialite-type coed with whom I shared a couple of classes happened by and scoffed at me for such a low-class choice of food. “How can you possibly eat that?!?” I bought it anyway and took it home for dinner, served up as always on a hamburger bun, washed down with a cheap Wiedemann beer because my parents weren’t around for further condemnation. ($3 a six-pack at Bo-Nats Convenience Store, back in the days when you could buy beer at age 18.)

That was my last encounter with Cambridge, not because I was ashamed, but because it simply slipped off my radar. Soon after that encounter I moved on campus and got a meal ticket. The next time Cambridge Hash crossed my mind it was long gone.

I still enjoy hash, but it’s usually served over rice rather than in a bun. Rather than go whole-hog, most places now use pork shoulder, the same cut they would use for pulled pork BBQ. My go-to supplier is Henry’s Smokehouse, who makes some of the best hash I’ve had. Before the pandemic hit I’d stop by for their hash and rice plate served with two sides, usually the green beens and sweet potato pie. These days I’ll pick up a pint occasionally to have either in a bun or over a baked potato with a dash of Tabasco to spice it up even more.

Sometimes I’ll try the hash and rice at BBQ buffets around the state, with varying degrees of satisfaction. I’m not a huge fan of the red variety, preferring spicy mustard, but it will do in a pinch. Here’s a sampling of my hash adventures around South Carolina, most taken pre-pandemic after various kayaking trips…

Buffet at Lone Star BBQ
Hash on the Buffet Line at Lone Star BBQ
Cedar Creek through Congaree Swamp National Park
Hash and Rice as a “side” at Big T’s BBQ in Gadsden
Schoolhouse BBQ-004
Tomato-Based Hash and Rice as a side at Schoolhouse BBQ in Lake City
Sweatman's BBQ-005
BBQ sampler from Sweatman’s BBQ near Eutawville
Little Pigs BBQ in Columbia with LCU-004
BBQ of all kinds from Little Pigs BBQ in Columbia
Barbeque of all kinds
More BBQ from Little Pigs
Food from the Buffet at Lone Star BBQ
Lone Star BBQ
Duke's BBQ-002
Two types of hash on the buffet at Duke’s BBQ in Walterboro
Dinner at Hawg Heaven
Hog Heaven in Prosperity

As for Cambridge Hash, it was a product of the Ninety Six Canning Company. The company also made Star Fort Meat Stew, which I never tried.

As mentioned earlier, Cambridge Hash was named for an ill-fated town in the old Abbeville district. In colonial days there was no town named Ninety Six, but there was the Ninety Six District. The British Star Fort was located here and figured prominently in the Revolutionary War. After the war a small town grew up around the fort, named “Cambridge” for a nearby academy. When the academy closed, the town died out, but was later reborn a couple of miles away as the town of Ninety Six.

Robert Mills’s 1825 Map of the Abbeville District showing Cambridge

Obviously, hash didn’t originate in Ninety Six. So what, exactly, is this stuff? From Websters we get the following:

noun: hash; plural noun: hashes
1. a dish of cooked meat cut into small pieces and cooked again, usually with potatoes. a finely chopped mixture.”
2. a hash of raw tomatoes, chili peppers, and cilantro, a mixture of jumbled incongruous things;
3. a mess.

Food historian Robert Moss traces the term back to England.

The stew’s name likely derives from “haslet,” an old English term for the viscera of a butchered animal. In nineteenth-century accounts, that stew was often referred to as “giblet hash” or “liver and lights hash”—“lights” being an old term for the lungs. In most early versions, the cook would start with a hog’s head, liver, and other organ meats and cook them with water in an iron stew pot over an open fire.

Robert F. Moss – The Story of Hash and Rice

This loose definition could fit many types of hash. The Canton Advocate from St. Louise spoke of hash this way in 1878…

The Canton Advocate, October 3, 1878

Here’s the transcription of part of the article, which adds even more confusion to the mix…

The author of the above tender parody was probably one of those extremely enterprising men who do nothing themselves, but whose wives support them by keeping boarders. The lazy lubber composed this apostrophe to mixed food to still the grublings of over-hashed boarders.

What is hash? Ever one knows, yet none can define it. The ablest minds of this century have grappled with the problem and signally [sic] failed. Webster says it is a dish of minced and mixed meat, or met and vegtables [sic]; but this itself is only a cold, unseasoned hash of words, and no more expresses the popular idea of the viand in question than it does of mince pie…. Notwithstanding the general in definability of has, we may yet discuss its peculiarities and note its virtues and its vices. Hash is of two kinds: first, home-made hash; second, hotel or boarding house has. The first we learned to love and devour as children.

Very likely Mother made it; if not probably she superintended it…. Did we ever question the ingredients of the hash?…Oh no! There was mystery, but we had unlimited confidence in the legitimacy of the mystery. Then we grew to maturer years. Home was no more from hotel to restaurant and from restaurant to boarding house…How about the hash? It was there, it was everywhere, with a regularity wonderful to contemplate. But gradually suspicion took possession of the manly breast. He eyed the mystery frequently and sadly, and he eyed the waiter, the steward, and the landlady….

Somebody has said that it is safe to eat hash when the landlady eats hash, but the absence of the landlady in the hotel, restaurant, and most boarding houses, renders the rule useless. At rare intervals one finds a boarding house where everything is scrupulously near and elegant, so remindful of Mother and those youthful days, that he is justified in eating everything set before him. Such a place is a pearl of great price, and, when discovered, should be treasured up. Probably the best reccommendation [sic] that a private boarding house can have is that it is safe to eat its hash. It is useless to expect the Milleninum [sic] until the general practice of all the Christian graces and virtues has made has a universally safe article of diet — restored it to its pristine simplicity and popularity.

In his history of hash Robert Moss goes on to say that the Southern version of hash…

…originated sometime prior to the Civil War in the counties on either side of the Savannah River, which forms the border between Georgia and South Carolina. Estella Jones, who was born enslaved on Powers Pond Place near Augusta, recalled that when she was a child, some of the men would occasionally steal hogs from other plantations and “cook hash and rice and serve barbecue.”

The Abbeville Press and Banner published several accounts of hash being served at community barbecues in the 1850s, including the “rich hash” served at a barbecue at Matthews’ Spring in 1854 and the “tenderest, fattest mutton, nicely barbecued pig, smoking hash, Irish potatoes, beets, &c.” at a dinner at Robinson’s Spring in 1858. In 1861, at the opening of the Civil War, a barbecue was held to honor the Edgefield Riflemen, who hailed from the county just across the Savannah River from Augusta, as they prepared to leave for battle. The menu included “barbecued meats, and hash.”

Hash originated as a way to use up every bit of a pig when it was slaughtered, whether in preparation for a barbecue or at a more ordinary hog killing. A pig slaughtered for a barbecue would be butterflied and prepared to go on the pit. At hog killings in late fall, the pig’s fat would be rendered to lard and the hams, shoulders, and belly salted and hung in a smokehouse. In either case, the head, organs, and various other parts were left behind, and these ended up going into a large iron pot and rendered into hash.

Moss also states in his article that Big T’s in Gadsden is one of the only places left in South Carolina that “still make their hash with hogs heads and/or liver.” I kind of wish I’d known that before I got the hash and rice there after our last paddling trip.

Greenwood County’s long connection with hash started with a rather bizarre political incident. On May 22 of 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks from Edgefield attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane. Sumner had made a speech two days early against slavery in which he he also insulted pro-slavery South Carolina Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, a cousin of Brooks. Brooks entered the Senate chamber with several of his colleagues and proceeded to hit Sumner with his cane, causing serious injury.

J.L. Magee’s famous political cartoon of the attack on Sumner

Brooks resigned his House seat on July 6 and pleaded guilty in Washington to charges of assault and battery. He was convicted and fined $300, but on August 1 was re-elected right back into his old seat in a special election. On October 3rd of that year a special dinner was held in honor of Preston Brooks attended by nearly 10,000 people. The food served at that dinner was…wait for it…hash.

In 1959 a historical marker was erected to commemorate this dinner.

Greenwood Index-Journal, December 4, 1959

Brooks didn’t live long to bask in his victory, though. He died just a few months later in January of 1957 of “croup” at the age of 37. He was buried in Edgefield.

Preston Brooks Grave-006
Alan Russell photographing Preston Brooks’s monument over his grave in Edgefield

The style of hash served at this dinner became popular in Greenwood County. Bill McDaniel, Jr., son of a famous hashmaster for the mills in the county, recounted the origins of Ninety Six hash in an SCETV interview.

Sometime around 1929 William J. Connelly started the Connelly Canning Company in Ninety Six. At first his company only canned vegetables supplied by local farmers.

Greenwood Index-Journal, June 11, 1933

By 1936 Connelly renamed his company the Ninety Six Canning Company and expanded his offerings to include hash based on the local recipe.

Star Fort and Cambridge brands were advertised and sold throughout the region.

Cambridge Hash was a regular feature on local school menus.

But Ninety Six Canning wasn’t the only game in town. Local mills like Grendel Mill and Ninety Six Mill had hash houses that cooked inexpensive meals in large iron pots for their workers.

In the 1980s Greenwood County celebrated its hash history with an annual “Hash and History Festival”. These were centered around Star Fort near Ninety Six and focused more on the Revolutionary War history than on Preston Brooks brutal behavior. I don’t blame them.

As for Cambridge Hash, Bill Connelly sold the Ninety Six Canning Company to Larry Craig, a former NFL football player with the Green Bay Packers. When Craig passed away his cousin Jerry Gantt took over the business. The company was still producing hash as late as this article from 1995.

The Index Journal, July 26, 1995

The SCETV series on hash interviewed Gantt about the business. One of the things I found interesting about his comments was the he talked about “stringy” meat as opposed to “chipped.” The stringy version is more akin to what you would find at Henry’s or Wise’s. Gannt said that they would refrigerate this for special occasions. The chipped hash would go into the cans. Basically, the Star Fort Meat Stew and Cambridge Meat Hash were the same thing, just labeled differently for some reason.

Sometime during the 1990s Ninety Six Canning Company ceased operations. All of the old hash houses have closed. The last was the Troy Hash House which closed in 2014.

Troy Hash House

While I was on my Ninety Six trek I tried to find some remnant of the old canning industry. I had a 1934 Sanborn Insurance Map of Ninety Six that showed a canning company on South Cambridge Street.

There was a modern bank branch at the location now. Beside that sat a building that looked sort of like the black and white photo of Ninety Six Canning from earlier in this post, but it’s not quite the same.

Surprisingly I didn’t see anything about Ninety Six hash at the Greenwood County Museum when I was there. I may have missed it.

It may have had its origins in slavery. It may be associated with a brutal assault in defense of that slavery. But I still love the flavor of hash. To me it’s comfort food. I like the stringy mustard-based hash, the spicier the better. I’ll eat it over rice, over a baked potato, or in a bun, regardless of what some sorority sister might say. Maybe someday I’ll even try corned beef hash. Who knows?

Tags: barbecue BBQ Greenwood South Carolina

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Ancestral Ages
Next Post: Musical Hoarding ❯

5 thoughts on “In Search of Cambridge Hash”

  1. Alan says:
    March 20, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    You made Cambridge hash for us early in my occupancy of Gray Court. I recall thinking it looked like dryer lint but tasted much, much better!

    Reply
    1. Tom says:
      March 20, 2021 at 9:39 pm

      I had forgotten about that. That’s probably an apt description.

      Reply
  2. Bob says:
    July 13, 2021 at 10:15 pm

    The photo you have is in fact the 96 cannery. I remember going there with my Dad to pickup a large batch for an event and Jerry Gantt (Brother of Wayne
    Gantt of Blyth Funeral home) was there canning. His hash was much better prior to canning, this I remember well.

    Reply
  3. Jim Roller says:
    August 6, 2021 at 12:01 pm

    Just stumbled on this doing some research into “liver and lights” hash for a reader. Good stuff. Really nicely done.

    Reply
  4. Timothy Connelly says:
    August 10, 2021 at 3:22 pm

    Finally confirmed the family story I was told more than 50 years ago. The Connelly that started the ninety six canning company was my Great Great Grandfather’s son who moved from Prosperity, S.C. to Ninety Six along with his Mother and 2 brothers.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • EdTech (200)
  • Entertainment (202)
  • Family (121)
  • Gear (115)
  • General Technology (99)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (265)
  • Internet (144)
  • Local (450)
  • Miscellaneous (550)
  • Music (196)
  • Paddling (248)
  • Photography (779)
  • Podcast (6)
  • Rambling (227)
  • Rants (161)
  • Recipes (34)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (411)
  • Uncategorized (129)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (60)

Recent Posts

  • The Phoenix Riots and Dr. Benjamin Mays – An MLK Day Ramble
  • An Obsession with Steak Knives
  • An Epiphany on Patriotism
  • Kayaking Bates Old River and Running Creek
  • One Step Closer

Recent Comments

  • Joel Nagy on Old Pickens Court House
  • Derek May on The Haunting of Farr’s Bridge
  • Roger Combs on Mystery Cemetery
  • Roger Combs on Mystery Cemetery
  • Roger Combs on Mystery Cemetery

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear Georgia geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
January 2023
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Dec    

Copyright © 2023 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown