This has been an ongoing post over the last 4 years that I have been updating as I tweaked my process and ingredients to make goetta. Not just goetta, but goetta that meets two simple criteria. 1. It tastes like what I remember as a kid, and 2. It cooks up well in the skillet. When I say “cooks well,” I mean, it crisps up on the outside, and doesn’t stick to the skillet so much that it falls apart. This has been the challenge for me. If you’ve read through this post before, try it once more. I’ve taken out the extraneous info and anything leading up to my previous attempts that I deemed unsuccessful.
Yes, you can find the recipe and my detailed process below. I’m not stingy. In fact, it’s my hope you will try it, and report back on your results, and thoughts. The recipe is not where good goetta is at since it’s subjective and everyone has different tastes. It’s the process we employ to make goetta that determines its success or failure. Read on to learn more.
It took growing up to realize that growing up in Cincinnati was cool. As a boy, I didn’t know or appreciate its history or wonder. As an adult now interested in heritage and tradition, I’ve learned so much about the Midwest, my ancestors, and their lifestyles during a certain place and time. It’s still cool to live here… but only now, I live 30 minutes west of Cincinnati. There’s a saying around Cincinnati’s west side…. ‘West-siders always move west’, and that’s true.
First, a little background…
Cincinnati and Goetta
In a quest to make the best homemade goetta, one can begin, and also end in Cincinnati. The original Porkopolis! While some argue, that “Porkopolis” was not a compliment to Cincinnati, I say it’s all a matter of perspective. If you didn’t know, Cincinnati was the original hog butcher to the world until around 1860, after which Chicago exceeded Cincinnati in the number of hogs being killed each year. That along with the fact that the majority of Cincinnati’s population was of German descent looking to make sausage go a little further for their families, it’s safe to call goetta a rightful by-product of Porkopolis. “Like Pennsylvanian scrapple or North Carolinian livermush, goetta takes scraps of meat that would otherwise get thrown away—pork, sometimes beef, or offal—and combines them with grains. The resulting mixture is then spiced, smushed into a loaf, sliced, and pan-fried to crispiness.”
For better or for worse… we ate goetta… and a lot of it. Goetta is as familiar as a dollar bill to me and anyone in the surrounding areas… But, drive more than 100 miles in any direction out of Cincinnati, walk into the next Waffle House and order goetta, and they’ll look at you like you had two heads.
Respect to the spice mix, but the magic is in the process
You can find many goetta recipes around the internet, with many clever variations, but there’s not a lot of talk about the creation process. I have a goal to make the goetta I remember eating in the 70’s-80’s. It was mostly Glier’s… made just across the river in Covington, Kentucky. There were others too… but this is the one my parents bought, and so you might say I was indoctrinated. “Glier’s has the distinction of containing offal… pork hearts and pork skin, which appear as headcheese-like dark pink chunks in the otherwise pale gray raw patties and give Glier’s a noticeable funky smell before it’s fried. That funk, as pork enthusiasts are well aware, translates into wonderful depth of flavor.”
For this latest round, I didn’t have pork hearts, but I did have chicken hearts from my last harvest, so I used these this time. I also had some chicken livers. I hand-diced the livers in pea-sized pieces.
How it cooks, matters!
I cook my goetta in a cast iron skillet on medium heat and have a special splash screen I use to catch the many exploding oats. Goetta should cook up right, browning but not sticking or burning before it does. I shouldn’t have to oil or lube up the skillet either. Truly crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. When the oats snap and pop while cooking, I think it’s close… because they were not overcooked during the initial cooking stage. These things matter when you are trying to recreate nostalgia. I’ve spoken to many people who have made goetta and the common suggestion is water reduction. After the goetta making process, the mixture is very thick, and bits do need to be scraped off the pan (or crockpot) periodically. The final mixture should be so thick that if you take a spoonful, and drop it back in the mixture, it sits on top, and doesn’t sink back in.
The recipe (and my process)
Prepare the meats. Here is where we’re bending the flavor-profile like a jedi. Typically, goetta calls for half pork and half beef. That’s fine, but I’m swimming in good quality pork, and so I used no beef, and all pork this time (with the addition of pork skin, chicken hearts, and livers.)
I typically grind all my meats for goetta, but you can buy and use ground. For this recipe, it calls for a little over 2 lbs of meat. Here is what I ended up with this round.
1.5 pounds of 50/50 pork/fat.
(go 1 pound pork, .5 pound beef if you have)
.2 pound of chicken hearts
(I’ll go with pork heart next time!)
.3 pound chopped pig skin
For me, the skin is required. Not only because my childhood goetta calls for it, but the skin renders out an amount of collagen during cooking that breaks down with the fat to help congeal the final loaves and lets the goetta lube up the skillet more on its own. I always have an abundance of skin, and it keeps indefinitely vac’d in the freezer.
I grind the above through a course die. I don’t worry about keeping the meat and fat cold for grinding like we would for sausage.
Grind into a bowl, then add
.2 pound hand-diced chicken livers
(any liver you have will work)
It’s important here to not run the livers through the grinder. Hand dice, then mix into the farce. We want small chunks that don’t disappear into the goetta. Put in fridge until you need it.
Put a large pot on the stove and add
- 6 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- Chicken boullion cube (optional)
Bring to a boil, hold for a few minutes until the boullion is dissolved, then add:
- 2 cups steel cut oats (pinhead oats)
- 1/2 cup bulgar wheat
You can skip the bulgar wheat and use 2 and 1/2 cups of pinhead oats. Reduce heat to low and put a lid on. Stir periodically until the oats have absorbed all the water. It will be thick and will stick to your pan on the bottom. Be scraping it up as you stir using a large metal spoon. This won’t take long (maybe 10 minutes tops). Many recipes in the past had us doing this for 1-2 hours! I feel like this is overcooking and a contributor to a starchy, sticky mess. It’s OK that the oats still have some stiffness before we add the meat. In another bowl, measure and combine:
- More pepper if you like
- 1 large onion, diced finely
- 1/2 tsp sage (go fresh if you have it)
- 4-5 bay leaves
- 1 tsp MSG (Accent) Yes, I went there this time (if you think Glier’s is too salty, skip this)
- Any other spice variants to your liking (I added nothing)
Once the oats have absorbed the water, it will be thick! Add 1 more cup of water to the meat farce along with all of the spices you measured and mix until integrated. Then, add all to the oats. Mix very well while still cooking on low.
Once everything is mixed, I transferred to a crockpot on high for 2 hours. This includes the time it takes for the crockpot to get up to heat.
You want to stir well at least every 30 minutes during this time. I still used my spoon to scrape the sides of the crockpot as the thick mixture will be evaporating more water out while it cooks. This is good.
Again, you know it’s done when you take a spoonful of the mush and drop it on top, and it doesn’t quickly integrate back in. Cut the heat and prepare your loave pans. I have used these stoneware mini bread pans that my wife has. They are perfect size and shape to make 6 loaves. I lined them with plastic wrap, and spooned the goetta filling into each, packing a little with the spoon to get the air out. I wrapped the plastic wrap over the top and put in the freezer to set.
The cook test
In most of my past attempts, here is where things fall apart. I’m always excited to slice and cook up the first piece of goetta. I slice and toss in my iron skillet. It looks right. It seems to lube up the skillet the way it should. It smells awesome, both out of the freezer… and while it cooks. I wait a bit anxious to flip it and see how it comes off the skillet hoping the brown crispy side stays intact.
See a past attempt below that falls apart. This is the challenge with goetta and is the sum of all the handling of the oats, and the process employed.
I have added a pic below that is the most recent attempt. A huge success in my mind! It smells great, flips and holds together as it should, and has that crispiness outside that makes goetta what I want it to be.
Acknowledgments
During my quest for the perfect goetta, I spoke to a lot of people both on and offline. I want to thank my friend Chris N. for sharing his tips and a recent batch of goetta he made and also Johnny over at the Bakers Biscuit (recipe), who could totally relate to the goetta dilemma. Both of these guys had the advice of using less water… even only enough to swell the oats just so much before integrating with the rest of the ingredients.
I have also heard of people letting the oats soak overnight reducing the cook time on make day). I think there is merit to this.
If you have any thoughts or comments about goetta, your experience, or just a story, I’d love to hear from you. It’s my feeling that you need to be able to give a loaf of goetta to a friend and have them be able to cook it up and hold together without them having to be careful with it… or handle it a certain way. I’m sticking with this current process and recipe for now and think it has come a long way. Good luck in your own goetta endeavors.
Jason
We had the same problem with too much water. Not aware of the need for collagen. I’m curious if you’ve figured out how to make the perfect goetta.
Sorry for my late reply. I’m still working on it and plan to post an update when I do. I have done more reading and I’ve sampled others goetta but it’s time to try it again. I plan to soak the oats the night before and avoid hydrating them using heat. They’ll be added in when it’s time and cooked less. Stay tuned!
I was googling Goetta recipes to tweak mine and yours was at the top of the list. Since my last name is also Morgan, I clicked hoping it was a good omen. I didn’t have to read very long before I knew it was not just a random person with the same last name, but an actual relative. Hey Jason, it’s your cousin in law Mary from over the hill. I had the same problem with the Goetta falling apart when I fried it. I tried using less lean cuts of meat and it improved but still a bit crumbly. I did soak the oats over night last time which helped a bit more. This time I am trying something I saw while googling. I found A guy who cooks the meat/spices first (1 hour) then adds the oats and sets a timer so they cook exactly 20 min. He claims over cooking the oats is what makes mushy Goetta. I always make a double batch ( 4 lbs meat and 5 cups oats) and thus have always doubled the water as well (16 cups) this guy used the same amount of oats and meat that I use but left the water at 8 cups which is what my recipe calls for when using only 2 pounds meat and 2 1/2 cups oats. His looked perfect when fried and total cooking time was about 1 1/2 hrs. Another benefit was I find it difficult to get the raw meat evenly distributed through the thick cooked oats. He added oats after the meat was cooked in the water and stirred with spoon and it all mixed together easily and perfectly. I am making mine using his method today and will let you know how it turned out in a day or so.
Heya cousin! Great to hear from you. I appreciate you sharing the tips! I’m all about trying them out to find the perfect cooking goetta! We’ll have to trade some!
It’s been a little over a year since you guys talked “Morgan Family Goetta” collaboration. Enquiring minds want an update to recent developments with this recipe/process.
-Don
Hi Don, it continues to improve! Thanks for inquiring. I have found that after it’s been frozen in the freezer for a while, it tends to fall apart easier when I slice before cooking. I don’t necessarily want that. There is always a balance between the amount of water used… and getting some nice fat and starch mixed together to hold things together. It’s definitely not been forgotten and I do plan to add updates to this post next go-round, but in the meantime, I’ve been working on some various other projects that are timely with the season. It’s likely I won’t come back to this until the next batch which is usually wintertime where more projects can happen in the kitchen. I’d love to hear anything you may be trying and I’m always happy to answer questions here or on the Morgan Ranch group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/morganranch/
Hi! I slice my goetta after i refrigerate it….wrap each portion in parchment paper, and load them into a ziplok bag.freeze it.take each piece out as you need it..works like a charm
I lived with my grandmother as a child. She made her own goetta and served it as a mush, not fried. I left Cincy 50 years ago and only recently developed an interest in goetta. All the recipes call for frying. No one serves it like my grandma did. Also, I have reviewed a bunch of recipes prior to attempting a batch. I seem to recall another ingredient, possibly barley, in gradma’s goetta. Have you heard of that?
I have added barley into my own goetta before with awesome results! There are no hard and fast rules, but there is a magical relationship with the grains and the amount of water you use. That’s where I have been experimenting the most. Ideally, the goetta should stay together and cook up without falling apart. It should also lube up the skillet on its own as the fat from skin and meat renders out.
https://meatmentor.com/goetta-life/
Very interesting. Linked are my Goetta ideas.
Awesome info there George and greetings to a fellow Cincinnatian! I look forward to going through your article more thoroughly and even trying what you have shared. I ache to makebetter goetta! Thanks!
https://meatmentor.com/goetta-life/
Excellent product bind using the recipe in this linked post.
TG (Toaster Goetta)
-Fits America’s 75 year old convenience food industry.
-Delicious new breakfast product that goes great with over easy eggs or fried egg whites.
-Cost effective to produce at home, in Meat Inspection exempt retail shops or existing commercial patty plants.
-A seven ingredient low-fat health food item, (added water is one of the ingredients).
-Oats are widely viewed to be one of the top 10 healthiest foods.
-TG patties bind together well due to meat shreds and onion fibers.
-No MSG, sodium phosphate or either type of meat curing agent.
-No highly processed vegetable ingredients, like what is common in science experiment meat mimics.
-Oats effectively act as a fat mimic to increase the palatability of shredded lean pork.
-Oats are naturally gluten free.
-Since lean meat is part of the formulation there is very little fat present for oats to soak up.
-Makes good usage of modern, mainstream lean hog shoulder cuts.
-Oats absorb cooked-out water soluble meat proteins; as well as other beneficial meat nutrients that are purged during cooking.
-No meat cooking loss is incurred during initial Goetta production. There is however some shrinkage from patty oven browning.
-No caramel coloring is used. Caramel coloring is common in soy grit containing products; where it is used to dye grain grits to closely color match browned meat.
-TG patties have a natural maillard reaction browned appearance.
-Has unique,, unobjectionable texture/mouth-feel.
-TG is actually High Quality Goetta, the acronym TG is used in an attempt to distance TG from negative perceptions created from the long term sale of common Goetta variations.
-Utilizes underutilized pork shoulders, the same reason why SPAM was invented. Versatile pork shoulder meat remains competitively low priced.
-Maintains high quality level, for a sufficient length of time, during freezer storage.
-IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) to conveniently pop into a toaster from the frozen state.
-Does not drip in toaster.
-Microwaving is another viable option.
The production of meat & grain component sausages goes back hundreds of years in Europe. Grain containing sausages were originally made by a combination of hand shredding, knife cutting or meat cleaver chopping cooked-tender meat & offal. The mechanical meat grinder was invented in Germany during the early 1800’s. Soon thereafter, many sausage meats became more finely minced. I would guess that was when emulsion type sausages such as wieners and bologna came about. By the 1840’s the meat grinder was beginning to see use in America. Grinding; instead of shredding meat, led to very low binding grain component sausage end-products. During the time when most of the world continued to extend animal proteins by adding grain and offal, America’s first Porkopolis was generating a good bit of thin muscle, lean meat cuts. Early on, neck bones, spareribs and even some pork tenderloins were not making it into the wholesale brine barrel shipping trade. (This claim comes from page 110 of the We Live In Cincinnati history textbook: Packing at first was wasteful, for there was no way to keep the meat cold. Carts of spareribs and tenderloins were dumped into the Ohio River.”). Cooked meat shreds from thin muscled pork cuts provide a superior bind to Goetta patties. And, at the same time, oats enhance the palatability of otherwise dry lean meat. Oat bran is used today in some low-fat beef products.
As Cincinnati’s Porkopolis came to an end, so did any supply of inexpensive to free lean pork. With advances in refrigeration and meat processing Chicago meat packers came up with other uses for thin muscle pork cuts. After Cincinnati lost its pork packing crown, the region’s Goetta tradition began morphing towards being a low quality product containing ground fat, skins and internal organs. Still, throughout the 20th century many homemade Goetta recipes specified the grinding of cooked-tender pork roasts, as well as beef roasts. Beef chuck entered into the homemade Goetta picture as being more prestigious than using all pork. The nutrients in pork are about the same as beef, but pork is a fourth to a third as expensive. The main reason, that I can think of for grinding cooked-tender roasts is because meat fibers were too long, compared to short meat fibers from neck bones or spareribs. Reducing fat and organ meat particle size is another reason for grinding cooked meat. Conversely, raw lean roasts can be coarsely ground (using a one inch hole size grinder plate) cooked tender, then mashed into shreds. Unfortunately, most contemporary variations of Goetta are high in fat and crumbly. Low quality Goetta is lucrative to produce (like all Goetta it formulates at about one half liquid), but its market size is limited due to a lack of consumer acceptance. High volume – low markup is the mainstream food business model. So in many instances it is financially essential that food products be both economical to produce and are high in demand.
There are some logical reasons why even low quality Goetta has continued to exist around Greater Cincinnati; among them is pride in a unique local tradition. Currently there are many good reasons to resurrect High Quality Goetta as a convenient health food item. I possess the practical knowledge to do so at the home, retail shop and commercial levels.
The aroma of Goetta batches cooking helps drive sales at retail shops. Commercial production hints: try using pork cushion meat and inline FOD (Foreign Object Detection) X-ray equipment.