The Sarge’s Goetta – German Breakfast Treat

Cut the recipe in half, even this is more than enough!

Great recipe and tastes like it should. Best recipe for authentic goetta.

Made a half batch. Frist time I made it fell apart, so to make it thicker I put in a 1/2 cup less of water and added a 1/2 cup of steel cut oats. Also I reduced the cooking time of the oats by 30 minutes. After adding the meat and onions I removed the lid of the crock pot the last hour of cooking . Was happy with the results

This is my go to goetta recipe when I forget to bring any home from Cincinnati when I visit. I have used pork sausage (Bob Evans, Smithfield) if ground pork isn’t available at the grocery store. The one thing I do different is let the goetta cool to the semi solid state then use a large ice cream scoop and a slider hamburger press to make consistent sized patties that I put on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper then cool the rest of the way in the fridge or freezer. If I freeze the patties I vacuum seal them after they are frozen and they keep well until ready to use, just thaw overnight in the fridge.

very popular in Pennsylvania we call it scrapple. best fried crispy served with maple syrup or Karo

It makes a LOT! My recommendation is to make a half recipe and I like to use hot pork sausage only..another little secret is to dip the patties in a little corn meal before frying as it makes it really crispy. Delicious with a fried egg on top! Cincinnati calls steel cut oats, pin oats..

Being a Cincinnatian I have made my own goetta most of my life. This is one of the best recipes out there. I half the recipe, makes 1 loaf pan, using 1 lb of pork sausage. No beef. I like mine a bit spicier so I add 1 garlic clove, 1/4 tsp. allspice and red pepper flakes and 1/2 tsp of sage, along with a bay leaf at Step #1. I have also made it with HOT breakfast sausage. I make a batch. slice and freeze. Will never buy store made. This is so much better.

This is a hit with everyone who tries it. Even my deer hunting buddies who looked at me like I was crazy when I told them about it! IMHO it’s the best way to eat oatmeal.

Yes, this is how you make it!! After I get it cooked, I form it into loaves in bread pans, put it in the fridge to cool. It freezes well, by the way. It slices easiest when it is COLD. Slice it half an inch thick, make sure the oil is hot when you fry it, and don’t touch it until it is crispy and ready to flip over. It’s awesome. Please use old fashioned oats. Works so much better. I’ve been eating this all my life. A Cincy tradition. 🙂

Liked, esp. with an egg on top! A filling meal. One-half recipe makes a large amount. Have not yet defrosted what was frozen.

This reminds me of an old sausage recipe handed down from my German grandparents. They would boil a beef brisket and a whole pigs head (minus eyes and brain) in a big black cast iron pot over a wood fire until the pork fell off the bone. They would then grind the meat with onions and oats soaked in some of the boil pot liquid adding salt, pepper and a little nutmeg. The ground product would then be stuffed in sausage casings and boiled in the pot with the original liquid for 10 minutes. After the sausages cooled you cut sections of the links and then cut thinner sections length wise and fried. Always loved that sausage.

If your lazy and just want goetta you can order Gliers goetta sausage online. It’s a Cincinnati thing.

Used plain ground pork instead of sausage and substituted 1 T of Old Bay for the salt. Great Recipe!

I love this recipe. I dated a man from Cincinnati and he introduced me to it. I adjusted the recipe to 10 servings and it was perfect. Two small adjustments I made. I cooked the steel cut oats first then mixed in the meats and onion and put in slow cooker. I also added a teaspoon of sage. Once out of the slow cooker I divided into 2 loaf pans and put in the refrigerator. The next morning it sliced perfectly and fried up deliciously. Love it!!

My husband’s grandmother born in 1900 made the stove top Goetta well into her 90’s. I must admit I was a little skeptical when shortly after our wedding she gave me a pan to fix for him. I have since come to love it. She generally used pork, but was also known to mix in beef and even chicken. In later years she used greased aluminum mini loaf pans to cool and then freeze her goetta. I enjoy my goetta with eggs and toast. My husband prefers his just like his grandma, served on fresh bread drizzled with syrup. Thank you so much for a simpler way to bring our children a little family heritage at the breakfast table. I have introduced much of my extended family to goetta and now many of them love the stuff too. We have even had get togethers in the fall just to make large batches of the stove top kind. I can’t wait to share this recipe with them so they can enjoy goetta anytime. By the way, we’re from Indiana. I have had questions about the oats before. We use Dorsel’s Pinhead Oatmeal. Thank you again Sarge!

I’m originally from Cincinnati and now live in Greenwood Village Colorado. I’ve been ordering overpriced goetta from Cincinnati for years until I made this. 100% authentic and I think is better than the packaged stuff. When you make it you may want to cut this recipe in 1/2 or a 1/4, it will make 2 lbs of goetta.

Lived in Indiana for 50+ years but spent childhood in Cincinnati–learned to love goetta there even though I’m not German. Have made it for years the old way (top of the stove) but have used this recipe for the last few years. Crock pot is so much easier even though it takes about 2x as long. One thing he doesn’t say is how to know it is DONE. Learned the BURP rule from my Mother. When it is so thick it gets little volcanos that BURP steam, you’re finished. Makes several loaf pans–cool on rack, when cool turn out on waxed paper, wrapped paper plus aluminum foil to freeze extra (or throw away aluminum pans OK). Good for months.

This was awesome! I’m from Cincinnati and love goetta, so was really interested in the idea of making my own. I halved the recipe and added 2 tbsp rosemary, 1 tsp sage, and 4 bay leaves to the meat. I used regular, unseasoned ground pork and only half a large onion. I removed the bay leaves after cooking and poured the mixture into a 9×13 glass baking pan to set in the fridge for a day. Then I sliced the goetta lengthwise and rolled each of them into a log on wax paper. Then I cut the goetta log into patties to fry on a nonstick pan. I recommend only flipping them once, so they get very crispy on each side, and making thin patty slices of it. Use a metal spatula to slice your goetta, and make sure to not cook your oats for too long, or else it will make the log congeal and ruin the texture. Overall a great recipe and a much cheaper way to eat goetta! Can be stored in the fridge or the freezer. Also be sure to just use ground pork, not sausage. From what I understand the sausage doesn’t mix with oats well.

i will make it again. Next tine I’m going to try spicy pork sausage.

FYI: Goetta is not German as from Germany. It originated with the Germans who settled in the Cincinnati/Covington, KY area. It was a way for the poor Germans (of which my family was a part) to stretch their meat supply. My grandfather was a butcher. I haven’t seen it anywhere else in the country. In the Cinti area, it is even on the restaurant breakfast bars.

I’ve made this three times already. The first time, I followed the recipe with the exception of adding a couple of bay leaves along with the meat. I start out using the crockpot and then I transfer the water oats to the stovetop using large pot. I cut the recipe in half each time and it gives you a good two loaves of Goetta. Based on what I’ve read from other reviews who gave it 1 star, it sounds like you might have not used steel cut oats or pinwheel oats. Please note that making this from scratch, the Goetta might not clump as well while cooking it, but it’s still delicious! The second time I used sage sausage instead of pork sausage, which was good. The third time, I used Bob Evans Hot Sausage and added a teaspoon of sage and and a teaspoon of thyme. DELICIOUS!!! As soon as it’s done cooking, I transfer the finish product into bread loaves pan (make sure you line it with something so it comes out easily once it sets) and put it in the fridge overnight. Leaving it in the fridge overnight will make it easier to slice it and wrap up individual portions to freeze. Don’t need to use any oil when cooking it, it already has enough fat in it that you don’t need it. Also, the best way to cook Goetta when the time comes to eat it is to cook it on Low so it cooks through and when it starts to crisp, turn the heat up to get your desired crispness. Make sure you keep an eye on it though when you turn the heat up as it can overcook easily.