Barbecue Hash — By Tommy Purser

I stopped by Stinson’s Barbecue Tuesday afternoon to pick up some lunch for the good wife and I.
We both like barbecue so we frequent Stinson’s in Lumber City and Pigout in Hazlehurst a lot. Always for takeout.
The good wife was raised from infancy in Burke County in east Georgia, only a stone’s throw across the Savannah river from South Carolina. She was raised on a her family’s Burke County-style hash. Most all rural Burke Countians of that era enjoyed homemade hash at reunions and other gatherings that included outdoor cooking and outdoor dining. Of course such meals were often eaten indoors as well. And that tradition continues today.
Burke County-style hash is not unlike Carolina-style hash which is not surprising considering Burke County’s close proximity to South Carolina.
I started attending the good wife’s family reunions when just a teenager and the food served at those reunions always included a big pot of hash. As the original organizers of those reunions began to pass away, the good wife’s older brother, Carl, and their first cousin, Bob, took on the hash preparation duties.
Every barbecue restaurant in the east Georgia area includes hash on their menus. Hash is not a dish native to this area of the country. So I never get what I would consider a complete barbecue meal arouind these parts. I learned at the good wife’s family reunions that no barbecue meal is complete without a side order of hash, preferably served atop a bed of rice.
I cook ribs and Boston butt on the grill a lot and I like to use some of that meat to cook up a pot of hash to eat along with it.
While pork is the preferred meat ingredient included in a proper pot of Carolina hash, Carl and Cousin Bob often whipped up the hash with chicken, or pork and chicken, or maybe pork, chicken and beef combined.
One of the ingredients that sets Carolina hash apart from a regular pot of hash is vinegar. As most folks know, a proper Carolina-style barbecue sauce is heavy on vinegar. Correspondingly, Carolina hash — and thus Burke County hash — includes the tangy taste of vinegar.
Sconyers Barbecue in Augusta is one of Georgia’s iconic barbecue restaurants. Sconyers’ menu always includes hash. Carolina style hash — which tastes’ just like Carl and Bob’s hash.
A barbecue meal, to me, just isn’t complete without it.