The Chicago Tribune just posted a food and travel feature on goetta. Yes, goetta — Cincinnati's favorite meat-and-oat mixture — in a story titled, "Goetta's got it going on in Cincinnati, where chefs get creative with this meat-and-grain mashup."
The Queen City certainly does have it going on where weird meats are concerned and the Tribune really unpacks the novelty of this sacred concoction. It even tells Chicagoians how to pronounce it: "goetta (that’s GET-ah)."
The piece interviews David Glier of Glier's Meats to explain goetta.
"Don’t call it scrapple because 'that’s mushier' and made with cornmeal, says Glier of Glier’s Meats. He considers it more like a hardy oatmeal than sausage. Goetta usually stays softer inside than meatloaf, so it breaks apart more easily when sliced and fried. The ratio of pork to beef matters. So do the seasonings and choice of steel cut or pinhead oats as the binder. The mixture simmers for several hours, until the oats balloon and soak in the flavor of the meaty broth."
Glier's makes more than a million pounds of goetta annually, says Tribune writer Mary Bergin, who goes on to eloquently describe the origins and maturation of the dish:
"What began as a humble German stew of long-simmering oats, seasonings and ground meat scraps — pork and beef livers, hearts, tongues, skin and more — has turned into a ubiquitous food of regional pride, used by chefs in casual to upscale settings."
Bergin then lists some great goetta dishes found in Cincinnati including:
- The Yo Mama Burger at Arnold's Bar & Grill, an Avril-Bleh beef patty topped with American cheese, a potato pancake, a sunny-side-up egg and fried goetta.
- Taste of Belgium's Nati Crepe, with egg, goetta, havarti cheese, roasted peppers and onions.
- The Netherland eggs Benedict at the Grille at Palm Court, with goetta, roasted tomatoes and a bearnaise aioli on an English muffin.
- French Crust Cafe's puff pastry with goetta, a poached egg, hollandaise and piperade.
- Catch-A-Fire Pizza's Goettaup, Stand Up pizza, with Glier's goetta, peppadew, caramelized onion, four cheeses, white cheddar and a cracked egg.
- Camp Washington Chili's 513 Way, made with three slabs of Queen City Sausage goetta, Cincinnati-style chili, beans, onions and cheese.
The story also highlights our beloved Glier's Goettafest, which went from one weekend to two this year, as well as the fact that Marion Becker, the daughter of famed Joy of Cooking author Irma Rombauer, added a goetta recipe to the cult favorite cookbook.
