What is goetta, and why is it on our breakfast sandwiches?
Every week somebody from out of town points at our breakfast board and asks what goetta is. Every week a Cincinnatian standing behind them in line answers before we can. It is that kind of food: deeply local, a little strange on paper and absolutely beloved.
Goetta is on four of our menu items, including The Findlay, our best-selling breakfast sandwich. Here is what it is and why we built a menu around it.
A German immigrant stretch
Goetta traces back to German immigrants who settled in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in the 1800s. Meat was expensive, so cooks stretched pork and beef scraps with steel-cut pinhead oats, onions and spices, simmered it for hours, then set it in loaf pans to cool.
The result is sliced and fried until the outside is crackly brown and the inside stays soft. It is similar in spirit to scrapple from Pennsylvania, but oats instead of cornmeal give it a nuttier flavor and a looser, crumblier texture.
What goes in it
Recipes vary by family, and people argue about them with real passion. Most include:
- Ground pork shoulder, often mixed with beef
- Steel-cut pinhead oats, simmered for two to three hours
- Onions, bay leaves and a little allspice
- Salt and plenty of black pepper
Our goetta
We do not make our own, on purpose. Ours comes from a family butcher shop in Price Hill that has used the same recipe since the 1920s, and we think that is better than anything we could invent. It is heavier on black pepper and lighter on onion than most grocery store brands.
Each loaf is sliced three-quarters of an inch thick in the morning, then seared on a flat-top with a little butter for about four minutes per side. The trick is patience: flip it too early and it falls apart. Leave it alone and it forms a crust that holds everything together.
Goetta is ready when it sounds like it is frying in the pan and looks like it has a sunburn. Do not touch it before then.
Why it works on a sandwich
Crisp goetta gives a breakfast sandwich crunch, salt and something hearty that bacon cannot. On The Findlay we pair it with a runny fried egg, American cheese for melt and a spoon of pepper jelly for sweet heat. The yolk soaks into the oats and the biscuit catches the rest.
We also crumble crisp goetta onto The Porkopolis, our deal of the week this month, and offer it as a $2.25 add-on to any Hot Stack.
Where to try more
If you get hooked, look for goetta at local diners, on pizza at a few neighborhood spots, and at the city's summer goetta festival across the river. Or start small: come by any Stacked before 11 am and order The Findlay. The regulars behind you in line will nod approvingly.
