“If it doesn’t open, it’s not your door.” ~ Unknown
German immigrants settled along the Ohio River. There are many German enclaves up and down the river, from Evansville, Indiana, to Louisville, Kentucky, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and most of them have retained some of their cultural traits. In Cincinnati, the German immigrants altered an old-world recipe into what would become known as Goetta, pronounced GET-uh. Goetta mixes pork and beef with oats and spices into a kind of sausage. It was thought this mixture helped stretch a family’s meats into more meals. Goetta has never taken off in other parts of America but remains a marquee staple of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. Unless you’re from there, have family there, or spent some significant time there, you’ve probably never heard of Goetta let alone tried any. I was in my 40s before I ever had any, and it reminded me of blood sausage I had in England, but less salty. Glier’s Goetta is the official Goetta for the Cincinnati Reds, Bengals, Cyclones and the Florence (KY) Y’alls. Gotta get a Goetta, y’all.
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