My wife’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio has many unique and tasty foods. Since we live on the west coast we can’t just run to the store to pick up or out to a restaurant to eat our Cincinnati favorites. You can get goetta out next day air but the shipping costs have risen beyond what we think is reasonable. So I try to recreate the flavors myself. One of my favorites is Goetta. Goetta originates from German immigrants who wanted to use all parts of the animal to make their food stretch. I have been trying to get close to the flavor of the main Ohio commercial producer’s product for years. I’ve tried many different recipes and have finally settled on the one I have here. It’s a basic recipe that has been floating around the internet for many years so I’m not sure who wrote it. But the most important step is the seasoning. With out the proper bay and salt content it will not come out correctly. When you start seasoning it you will have to put in more salt than you think prudent due to the oats capacity to absorb flavor.
Rob’s Homemade Goetta Recipe
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups steel cut or pinhead oats
8 cups water
1 lb ground beef ( I use 80/20)
1 medium onion diced
1 lb loose Bratwurst sausage uncooked (if substituting ground pork make sure it is not lean)
8 bay leaves
Salt
Pepper
Directions
Add water, oats, salt and pepper to large pot and cook on medium low heat for 2 hours. Add meats, onion and bay leaves and mix well. Cook for an additional hour. Season with more salt as it cooks to achieve desired saltiness.
Pour in to two 9×5 loaf pans, cover, let cool then refrigerate.
When Goetta has set overnight, cut into slices and fry both sides until crispy. You may want to add some of your favorite oil to the pan to help with the crisping as this recipe does not release it’s fat as it cooks like the store bought kind. Enjoy!
Rob’s food blog 