Breakfast Sausage Meets Meatloaf in This Cincinnati Breakfast Icon

When I was growing up in Cincinnati, I ate goetta pretty often, but I had no idea how the city’s signature sausage was made. I considered goetta processed, like canned hash or lunchmeat. In my mind, it came from manufacturing facilities where pork-and-oat sludge flowed from tubes into molds and plastic wrappers, or butcher shops where old men with meaty forearms ground hearts and livers into stainless steel stockpots.

But plenty of Cincinnatians make the city’s signature meat-and-oat loaf in their home kitchens. “If you just follow the directions on the back of the bag [of pinhead oats], it’s very simple,” says Pat Haders, a native of the city’s heavily German and goetta-loving West Side. She’s been doing it for years.

For home cooks like Pat, the recipe on bags of Dorsel’s pinhead oats, better known as steel-cut oats, is to goetta what the Toll House recipe is to chocolate chip cookies. It yields three or four hearty loaves—enough to freeze or share with friends and family. (Pat doubles it.)

She’s right: There isn’t much to goetta. It doesn’t require any special machinery or a secret family recipe. But it takes time, and that’s why you don’t make just one pan. It wouldn’t be practical, and goetta is a practical dish. At least, it started that way.

Like Pennsylvania scrapple and North Carolina livermush, goetta descends from a family of German grützwursts, or “grain sausages,” made to stretch meat scraps and offal with inexpensive starches. Goetta is called a sausage, but it’s really more of a meatloaf, made by cooking meat(s), oats, and spices into a thick porridge, which then cools into a sliceable solid.

Historically, the meat in a grützwurst—in Germany or the New World—was whatever was available. In 19th century Cincinnati, when the city earned the nickname “Porkopolis” for its meat processing plants, that was pork. Not the popular parts, either. Those were sold on their own. As in Germany, butchers used the off-cuts to make grützwurst.

Goetta, like nearly everything else, has been domesticated. Today, some butcher shops in the Cincinnati metro advertise that they only use pork shoulder, as a comfort to the squeamish. That includes Bill Finke and Sons, a butcher shop just across the river from Ohio in Fort Wright, Kentucky, that claims to have invented the sausage. Others are proud to continue an offal tradition. Glier’s, the Covington, Kentucky-based, industrial-sized operation that supplies local supermarkets, adds texture and flavor to their recipe with pork skins and hearts.

How to Make Goetta at Home

The goetta that most home cooks make today is even simpler. Cincinnati’s Porkopolis days are in the distant past, and the majority of modern recipes, including the one on the Dorsel’s bag, call for pre-ground pork (and often supplemental beef).My recipe below is closer to goetta’s roots, paying tribute to the dish’s resourceful origins. I also improve the loaf's flavor and consistency through some extra effort that’s almost entirely hands-off. Instead of using pre-ground meat, I start with a hunk of bone-in pork shoulder. It gives the final product deeper flavor and a rich, gelatinous texture. There’s no store-bought stock here. The oats cook in the pork shoulder’s broth, bringing the dish together in a way that feels heartier and more satisfying than the shortcut versions. I won’t send you out for pork hearts, livers, or skin, but you could easily add them to the mix if you'd like. You could also substitute beef short rib or shank for half of the pork.

The seasonings are simple and relatively traditional. That includes MSG, used at both Finke’s and Glier’s. With black pepper and sage, it helps keep goetta on the meaty, savory side of the pork-and-oatmeal line. I’m calling it optional, but I highly recommend it.

For the easiest, lowest maintenance simmer possible, I cook my goetta in the slow, steady heat of the oven, taking inspiration from a popular slow-cooker method. All you have to do is stir often enough to prevent sticking or excessive browning. 

A warning: The next morning, when you turn your goetta out of the pan, it will be a shade of gray that communicates “loaf,” in the processed, industrial sense. It looks like what it is—an oatmeal-and-pork brick. Unappetizing? Don’t worry: We’ll fix it in post.

Crisped slowly in a skillet, the pork and oats caramelize to a crunchy brown finish. The porridge-like center remains soft and creamy. It eats like a breakfast-meat croquette. The basic, affordable ingredients transform into something greater than the sum of their parts through the alchemy of a hot oven and a medium-hot skillet. 

You can eat goetta like any other breakfast meat, alongside eggs and toast or on a goetta-egg-and-cheese sandwich. Or you can get more creative, layering slices on pizza, crumbling it into macaroni and cheese, and heaping it over nachos. Use it anywhere you’d use sausage, for extra flavor and crispy texture. 

“Goetta is time-consuming,” Pat Haders says, “but it’s yummy.” And if you’re investing the time, you might as well make a lot. Like the famous Dorsel’s recipe, this recipe yields three pans—enough to share with friends and family or to save in the freezer for a time when you don’t have five hours (plus an overnight rest) to invest in breakfast. Making goetta in bulk is part of the Cincinnati tradition, dating back to a time when low-and-slow cooking was the best way to turn a cauldron of leftover pork parts into something delicious.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃). In a large pot or Dutch oven, add pork, onion, celery, and bay leaves and cover with 10 cups (2.37 L) of water. Bring to a boil on the stovetop over high heat, then cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook until pork is falling off the bone, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Using a spider skimmer or large slotted spoon and tongs, transfer pork, onion, and celery to a large bowl. Discard bay leaves. Let meat cool slightly. Reserve cooking liquid, adding water, if necessary, to total 8 cups. (Discard or reserve any excess.) Using 2 forks, roughly shred meat, discarding any large pieces of fat or gristle. Then, using a food processor or meat grinder, grind pork, onion, and celery into small pieces.

Return meat mixture to reserved cooking liquid in pot. Stir in oats, salt, pepper, dried ground sage, and MSG, if using, and bring to a boil over high heat. Transfer to oven and cook, uncovered, stirring to prevent sticking and burning every 30 minutes for the first hour, then every 15 minutes for the second hour, until mixture becomes a thick paste and stirring takes some effort, about 2 hours total.

Line three 9- by 5-inch or 8 1/2- by 4 1/2 -inch loaf pans with parchment paper, or lightly grease them. Fill each pan with goetta mixture (about 4 cups per pan), pressing it down as firmly as possible to remove any air pockets. Use a spatula to smooth the top.

Let filled pan cool to room temperature, 1 to 2 hours, then cover with an airtight lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 hours to allow goetta to set completely.

To pan-fry and serve, run a knife around edges of pan to loosen the meatloaf, then invert and remove goetta from loaf pan and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices. In a large skillet, add 1 tablespoon oil or another fat (try bacon fat, if you have it) and heat over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add desired number of goetta slices, lower heat to medium, press lightly with a spatula, and cook without moving, until browned and crisped on one side, 7 to 10 minutes. For the crispiest possible goetta, drizzle a little more oil on top, then flip and continue to cook until browned on the second side, 5 to 7 minutes (The goetta slices will be delicate. Handle them carefully!) Serve.

Special Equipment

Large pot or Dutch oven, food processor or meat grinder, parchment paper, three 9- by 5-inch or 8 1/2- by 4 1/2 -inch loaf pans (disposable pans are OK), large skillet

Notes

2 pounds boneless pork shoulder with 1 ham hock may be substituted for the 3 pounds bone-in pork shoulder.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Goetta can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 6 months. For easier thawing, slice the goetta before freezing, separating the slices with wax paper and wrapping them tightly with plastic wrap. If frozen, thaw completely in the refrigerator before cooking.