Olin R. Phillips’ Upstate Beef Hash Recipe
Hash is a South Carolina original, a dish so unique to SC — which is arguably also the birthplace of barbecue — that if you’re from virtually any other part of the country you probably have an entirely different dish in mind.
No, we’re not talking corned beef hash or some sort of breakfast concoction. We’re talking about a dish that harkens back almost to the origins of barbecue itself.
Patrick Phillips of Big “O” Que shared with us his BBQ hash recipe, and we’ll let him explain a bit more about hash:
SC BBQ Hash…what is it?
It is most certainly a South Carolina dish, be it a side dish in the Midlands and Lowcountry and a main dish in the Upstate of South Carolina.
Hash over rice is the popular style of any South Carolina hash recipe search you will find on the internet, but our Upstate South Carolina style is almost like finding Bigfoot.
Our Upstate style of hash is very different from what you will find anywhere else in the state. Our recipe contains only a small amount of pork, if any, and is eaten as a main dish with white loaf bread or on a bun with coleslaw or just with a good slather of Dukes mayonnaise.
It’s nothing like what the name sounds. It’s not breakfast hash and nothing like corned beef hash. It’s a vast mixture of animal parts, mainly pork, with BBQ sauce, potatoes, onions, and spices in recipes from Columbia to the coast and on down.
Upstate recipes contain strictly beef and sometimes a small amount of pork, with lots of onions, spices, and lots of butter.
Nonetheless, no matter where you are in South Carolina, there are many styles and preferences.
It’s anywhere from a soupy mush to stringy beef that will melt in your mouth. Funny thing is you can travel thirty miles North of Gaffney, SC, to the state North Carolina and most folks there will have no idea what hash is in any form.
Brunswick Stew reins supreme north of the border.
South Carolina has always had hash from the colonial times to the present day. As a child, we looked forward to the 4th of July, as that was a big time for hash.
Every volunteer fire dept. and old-time cook presented their style of hash. These men spent all night surrounding this South Carolina delight cooking in large 40-100 gallon size cast iron pots stirring the meat with paddles or ax handles all night.
My hash recipe is handed down from my father. It’s the same, unchanged concoction he and his good friend Fire Fighter/Chief Charles Petty came up with back in the early ’60s, long before I was born.
My father owned a local restaurant in Gaffney, SC, called the Joy Drive-In, and he served this hash recipe only on the 4th of July because also located in Gaffney was Bill Willard’s place “Willard’s Hash & BBQ.”
He was also a very close friend and my father was the type of man who did not want to infringe on another man’s livelihood. Bill was famous for his hash, and it was served every day in his hash and BBQ restaurant.
My father was famous for foot-long hotdogs and burgers. He also sold BBQ at his hotdog stand that was prepared by his friend Bill Willard.
Hash is no longer just a holiday meal, but served every day all over our Great State of South Carolina!
— Download the SC BBQ Trail map and find restaurants serving all the types of hash we enjoy in SC or use our SCBBQ Restaurant Field Guide to all the SCBBQ restaurants within 10 miles of an interstate exit. —
This recipe is the style and flavor of hash you will find in Cherokee County. The same hash you would have found at Willard’s or the Joy Drive-In; both are now closed and just memories, pieces of the past that will live through this small-batch recipe that I hope you try and enjoy.
I failed to mention my father’s name in the story above: he was the late Rep. Olin R. Phillips.
After turning the restaurant over to his nephew and focusing on politics, he spent 30 plus years in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
The photo below is of my father and Bill Willard.
My father is being served a plate of Willard’s famous hash. (Today, you might try Midway BBQ in Buffalo, SC, to get a taste of what Willard’s hash was like.)
My father’s nickname was Big O, so I named my BBQ catering business after him.
The second photo is a packed house inside Willard’s Hash & BBQ, showing how popular it was locally.
Curious about SC BBQ Hash?
We’ve published an in-depth look at SC BBQ hash. In this piece, we examine the origins and history of yet another SC BBQ original. In addition, you will find a current listing of every SCBBQ restaurant that serves hash.
In the meantime, you have to make this classic Upstate South Carolina barbecue hash:
Olin R. Phillips' Upstate Beef Hash
Patrick Phillips of Big "O" Que shares his father's recipe for an SC Upstate beef hash that is common around the Union area like they used to serve at Willard's. Midway BBQ is a great restaurant to try a similar BBQ hash today.
Ingredients
- 15 pounds beef chuck roast
- 5 pounds pork shoulder
- 6–9 pounds sweet yellow onions
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon Texas Pete hot sauce
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1–1½ pounds sweet cream butter
- 2 gallons water
Instructions
- Cube your beef and pork into 2-inch cubes.
- (Use only a cast iron pot or stainless steel pot for cooking hash) for this size recipe. Boil the meat in two gallons of water for at least three hours.
- Remove meat from the water and allow to cool a bit and string the meat as you would break down BBQ.
- While meat is cooling, add onions, pepper, salt to the broth and allow to cook as you string your meat. I generally allow my onions to cook for about an hour.
- (Have a gallon of water on standby) Add your meat back to the pot and bring to a boil and then reduce to a slow simmer for an hour or so, stirring from the bottom to keep it from scorching.
- Stirring is very important, and you may want to have an assistant to help you with this.
- Get it to the proper consistency by reducing down or adding water. DO NOT ADD WATER UNLESS IT IS NEEDED. You want the hash to be a little soupy but not soaking wet.
- Add vinegar at this point and cook for fifteen more minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add the butter and Texas Pete, still stirring.
- Taste and add more of the dry ingredients and Texas Pete if needed after adding butter.
- Rest thirty minutes before serving.
- Cool before storing.
Notes
Want to make a smaller batch? Here's what Patrick does: "I will say that when I make it for my household only I cut everything in half like a tablespoon becomes a teaspoon. as well as meat, and then adjust as needed."
Original family-recipe ranges: Patrick Phillips' recipe specifies 6–9 pounds of sweet yellow onions and 1–1½ pounds of sweet cream butter. The ingredients above now preserve those original ranges. For the nutrition estimate only, we used the midpoints (7½ pounds onions and 1¼ pounds butter); those are not fixed requirements for making the hash. Adjust within Patrick's original ranges to get the flavor and consistency you prefer.
Yield and portions: Approximately 20 quarts is an unmeasured finished-yield estimate, not a guaranteed batch volume. That would make 160 half-cup servings. Four ounces by weight is only an approximate equivalent for a half-cup serving of hash; volume and weight are not interchangeable measurements. Nutrition will vary with how much water is reduced or added and the final meat-to-broth ratio.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
160Serving Size:
about ½ cup prepared hash (roughly 4 oz by weight)Amount Per Serving: Calories: 179Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 56mgSodium: 111mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 14g
Nutrition is an ingredient-based estimate per roughly ½ cup prepared beef hash (around 4 oz by weight, depending on density). The approximately 20-quart yield, and thus 160 half-cup servings, is an estimate, not a measured batch. For the nutrition calculation, the original 6–9 lb sweet yellow onion range and 1–1½ lb sweet cream butter range were represented by their midpoints (7½ lb onions; 1¼ lb butter); actual ingredients may vary. Values assume 15 lb chuck, 5 lb pork shoulder and the other listed ingredients, with final concentration depending on water added or evaporated. Not laboratory-tested.
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Browse all our BBQ recipes, or try one of these:
And we’ve published the following hash recipes in the SCBBQ Recipes: Going Whole Hog cookbook (read more about that here):
Hash
- Dukes BBQ-Style Hash Recipe
- Aull Family Thanksgiving Hash Recipe
- Andy Jumper’s SCBBQ Hash Recipe
- Carolina Outdoor Cooking’s Easy Hash Recipe
- Jason’s Red Hash Recipe
Where did the recipe directions go? I’ve been using this recipe regularly for a while now and today I cannot view the directions only the ingredients. I have refreshed the page multiple times with no change. Amazon recommendations seem to be in the way?
EDIT:As of July 28, 2025, this issue has been corrected by the developer and the instructions should be showing again. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Yikes! Looks like an update to the “Recipe Card” plugin I use has a bug. Checking on it. Hopefully, it returns soon… (Yes, it is a problem with the update and the developers are working on a fix. Stay tuned. Apologies…)
Thanks for the recipe. I’m from Greenwood, now living in Charoltte. What folks call hash here ain’t hash. This is the hash I’ve been looking for and I’ll have to make it myself. Thanks again for sharing.
Look forward to your report. Enjoy!
Bill Horne did BBQ in Sharon SC. His uncle Red did in Gaffney. They did beef hash too. Theirs was all beef. Incredible!! I had their BbQ and Hash for years! It ruined me, in all my travels nothing touches it. Awesome people. Memories from the past.
Hadn’t heard of Bill or Red. Thanks for sharing!
Great article. I’m a Gaffney native, and I have a question. What was that red, sweet, sauce Willard’s served with it’s hash plates?
Also, I the old Joy drive in building is a drive in restaurant called the Jiggy Pig, and Jeff Finely has the closest to Willard’s hash I have ever tasted.
@Elaine Black, I’m sorry I never had the pleasure of enjoying a meal at Willard’s and I don’t know about the red sauce. I searched back through old copies of the Gaffney Ledger, but no luck finding any mention of the sauce. Hopefully, someone will see your question and let us know. I am aware of The Jiggy Pig and Jeff. I’m sure he’d be flattered by the comparison. Thanks for sharing.
I spent years in Winnsboro SC and my parents rented a home from Jim Hill who owned the he C&C grocery on hwy 321 a few miles south of town. I helped Mr Hill tend to the cattle he raised and once or twice a summer he’d make beef hash. I loved that and the recipe above seems close as I can remember. That was over 40 years ago. Later I moved to Summerville and spent time at my late sisters house on Lake Marion right outside of Eutawville and we ate at Sweatman’s most weekends. So I’ve had the opportunity to both basic types of SC hash. I’ve never made beef hash before but I’m definitely going to try the recipe.
Carl Lovitt
@Carl “Battery box” Lovitt, that is a life well lived. Not many get to enjoy a variety of hash types like you have. Let me know how it turns out for you!
I made this the first time for July 4th. We were amazed at how much it tastes like Midway’s hash! Making it again today for Labor Day! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!!
Thanks for sharing! All the credit goes to Patrick Phillips and his dad.
I see your family was from Gaffney. So was the majority of my dads family. My grandparents lived on college drive near the elementary school. We are the Smith/Farish family.
The most appropriate way is to get it to the proper consistency by reducing down or adding water.
I served in the S.C. House of Representatives from 1990-94 with Olin and found him to be one of the best people serving in Columbia. His word was his bond and he treated everyone with respect. I was delighted to read this article about him and glad to see his spirit lives on. I can’t wait to try the recipe.
Roger Young
North Charleston, SC
Thanks for sharing, Roger. I know it will mean a lot to Patrick.
I appreciate your kind words, I work for Cherokee County and I hear daily from someone who remembers him or something he did for them and how much he is missed by not only me but them as well. He was w good man and a great cook