Goetta

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox food Goetta (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell)<ref name="seriouseats.com"/> is a meat-and-grain sausage or mush<ref name="citybeat18">Template:Cite news</ref> of German inspiration that is popular in Metro Cincinnati. It is primarily composed of ground meat (pork, or sausage and beef), steel-cut oats and spices.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was originally a dish meant to stretch out servings of meat over several meals to conserve money,<ref name="escoffier15">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and is a similar dish to scrapple and livermush, both also developed by German immigrants.<ref name="eater18">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Origins and popularityEdit

The dish probably originated with German settlers from the northwestern regions of Oldenburg, Hannover, and Westphalia who emigrated to the Cincinnati area in the 19th century.<ref name="seriouseats.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="goetta.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The word goetta comes from the Low German word Götte, meaning groats or coarse grains (or a food made from them).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In and around Oldenburg, this sausage is called Pinkelwurst (goetta sausage), and available in the winter months in a dish called Gruenkohl mit Pinkel (kale with Goetta sausage). Another similar dish is grutzwurst.<ref name=":2" />

The first commercial producer was Sander Packing.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CompositionEdit

File:Goetta tube.jpg

A conventional log of goetta

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Goetta is usually sold in logs or as slices from a bulk loaf, but links are also available.

While goetta comes in a variety of forms, all goetta is based around ground meat combined with pin-head oats, the "traditional Low German cook's way of stretching a minimum amount of meat to feed a maximum number of people."<ref name="500things">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Usually goetta is made from pork, but occasionally contains equal parts pork and beef. Goetta is typically flavored with some combination of bay leaves, rosemary, black pepper, cloves, and thyme.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> It contains onions and sometimes other vegetables.<ref name="seriouseats.com"/> The USDA standards for goetta require that it contain no less than 50% meat.<ref name="usda">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

While similar to Pennsylvanian scrapple and North Carolinian livermush in that it is a dish created by German immigrants and uses a grain product for the purpose of stretching out pork to feed more people, scrapple is made with cornmeal and livermush with either cornmeal or rice rather than the pinhead oats used in goetta.<ref name="charlotte18">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In other parts of Ohio where Germans settled there are similar dishes named grits or grutze.<ref name=":1" />

Preparation and servingEdit

Goetta is made with meat, oats, broth, spices, often onions, and occasionally other vegetables, simmered until thick, poured into loaf pans, and chilled or allowed to cool completely so that the loaves become firm enough to slice. It is then cut into slices and fried, often in butter.<ref name="500things" />Template:Rp

Traditionally goetta is served as a breakfast food, but it is also put into sandwiches and used as a topping for burgers and pizza.<ref name="takeout17">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Commercial distributionEdit

A number of commercial distributors produce and sell goetta in the parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana near Cincinnati. Glier's Goetta, established in 1946, produces more than 1,000,000 lb (450 metric tons) annually, around 99 percent of which is consumed locally in Greater Cincinnati.<ref name="goetta.com" /> Queen City Sausage is the next largest producer, while multiple small and artisanal producers also make goetta in and around Cincinnati.<ref name=seriouseats.com />

GoettafestEdit

"Glier's Goettafest" is an annual culinary festival held in August on the Ohio River waterfront near Newport, Kentucky's Newport on the Levee. The festival celebrates both the dish and Greater Cincinnati's German American heritage. While the main focus of the festival is goetta served in many different ways, it also typically includes music, dancing, and other public entertainment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2019 it expanded to two consecutive weekends.<ref name="brookbankENQ9apr2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first festival was held in 2002.<ref name=":1" />

MisconceptionEdit

File:Knipp with Apple sauce.jpg

A plate of pan-fried Knipp with apple sauce

Glier's markets goetta as the "German Breakfast Sausage,"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which may create the impression that it is something commonly eaten for breakfast in Germany. Cincinnati food expert Dann Woellert says, "Will you find something on a menu called goetta in a Westphalian gasthaus? The answer is no," but that grützwurst and knipp are similar "meat gruels".<ref name="woellert14">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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Goetta

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