Goetta ( ) is a meat-and-grain

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

or mush of German inspiration that is popular in Metro Cincinnati. It is primarily composed of

ground meat Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, incl ...

(pork, or sausage and beef), pin-head oats and spices. It was originally a dish meant to stretch out servings of meat over several meals to conserve money, and is a similar dish to

scrapple Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name ''Pannhaas'' ("pan tenderloin" in English), is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and wheat flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is forme ...

and

livermush Livermush is a Southern United States pork food product prepared using pig liver, parts of pig heads, cornmeal and spices. It is a regional cuisine that is common in Western North Carolina, and is typically consumed as a breakfast and lunch food. ...

, both also developed by German immigrants.

Origins and popularity

The dish probably originated with German settlers from the northwestern regions of

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, and

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

who emigrated to the Cincinnati area in the 19th century. Along with

Cincinnati chili Cincinnati chili (or Cincinnati-style chili) is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce used as a topping for spaghetti or hot dogs ("coneys"); both dishes were developed by immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s. In 2013, ''Smithsonian'' named one ...

and

mock turtle soup Mock turtle soup is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf's head to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat aft ...

it is, according to Cincinnati food historian Dann Woellert, one of the area's "holy trinity" of local specialties. The first commercial producer was Sander Packing.

Composition

While goetta comes in a variety of forms, all goetta is based around ground meat combined with pin-head

oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

s, the "traditional Low German cook's way of stretching a minimum amount of meat to feed a maximum number of people." Usually goetta is made from pork, but occasionally contains equal parts pork and beef. Goetta is typically flavored with

bay leaves The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was known by the scientific name ''Rosmar ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

, and

thyme Thyme () is the herb (dried aerial parts) of some members of the genus '' Thymus'' of aromatic perennial evergreen herbs in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are relatives of the oregano genus ''Origanum'', with both plants being mostly indigen ...

. It contains onions and sometimes other vegetables. The USDA standards for goetta require that it contain no less than 50% meat. While similar to Pennsylvanian

and North Carolinian

in that it is a dish created by German immigrants and uses a grain product for the purpose of stretching out pork to feed more people, scrapple is made with cornmeal and livermush with either cornmeal or

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

rather than the

pinhead oats Steel-cut oats (US), also called pinhead oats, coarse oatmeal (UK), or Irish oatmeal, are groats (the inner kernel with the inedible hull removed) of whole oats which have been chopped into two or three pinhead-sized pieces (hence the names; "st ...

used in goetta.

Preparation and serving

Goetta is made with meat, oats, broth, spices, often onions, and occasionally other vegetables, simmered until thick, poured into loaf pans, and chilled or allowed to cool completely so that the loaves become firm enough to slice. It is then cut into slices and fried, often in butter. Traditionally goetta is served as a breakfast food, but it is also put into sandwiches and used as a topping for burgers and pizza.

Commercial distribution

A number of commercial distributors produce and sell goetta in the parts of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

near Cincinnati. Glier's Goetta, established in 1946, produces more than 1,000,000 lb (450

metric ton The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s) annually, around 99 percent of which is consumed locally in Greater Cincinnati. Queen City Sausage is the next largest producer, while multiple small and artisanal producers also make goetta in and around Cincinnati.

Goettafest

"Glier's Goettafest" is an annual culinary festival held in August on the Ohio River waterfront near

Newport, Kentucky Newport is a home rule-class city at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers in Campbell County, Kentucky. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is a majo ...

's Newport on the Levee. The festival celebrates both the dish and Greater Cincinnati's German American heritage. While the main focus of the festival is goetta served in many different ways, it also typically includes music, dancing, and other public entertainment. In 2019 it expanded to two consecutive weekends.

Misconception

Glier's markets goetta as the "German Breakfast Sausage," which may create the impression that it is something commonly eaten for breakfast in Germany. Cincinnati food expert Dann Woellert says, "Will you find something on a menu called goetta in a Westphalian gasthaus? The answer is no," but that

grützwurst Kaszanka is a traditional blood sausage in the east and central European cuisine. It is made of a mixture of pig's blood, pork offal (commonly liver), and buckwheat or barley (kasza) stuffed in a pig intestine. It is usually flavored with onion, ...

and

knipp ''Knipp'' (in the Hanover area: ''Calenberger Pfannenschlag'') is a type of sausage made by mixing meat with grains ('' Grützwurst'') related to '' Pinkel'' which comes from the Bremen

are similar "meat gruels".

References

{{sausage Cuisine of Cincinnati Kentucky cuisine American sausages German-American culture in Cincinnati German-American cuisine Breakfast Meat and grain sausages Savory puddings Precooked sausages American pork dishes

Origins and popularity

Composition

Preparation and serving

Commercial distribution

Goettafest

Misconception

Further reading

See also

Similar dishes

References