Last night (and overnight) I made goetta. What’s that you ask. Long explanation is here. Short explanation, a dish with German origins popular in the Greater Cincinnati Area and nowhere else in the country. It’s origins are German. Basically a combination of meat and pinhead oatmeal, cooked together, then pan fried. It can be any meal of the day you want. I follow the recipe my mother used which is the one my paternal grandmother used: pork, oats, allspice, broth, and salt. I cooked it overnight in the crockpot.

When I was a kid, goetta was a special treat. Mom would take a pork shoulder (we called it a callie back then) and throw it in a pot and boil it. The meat and broth were then mixed with the oats. It was a treat because before the crockpot, it had to cook eight hours and be stirred constantly so it didn’t burn. So that meant all day stirring and stirring and stirring. When my mom got her first crockpot, we started having it more often since it was a lot easier to make, though still not a weekly or even monthly dish.

It’s been a long time since I made some and every time I do, I think of my mom. I have enough to last a week, so that will be a lot of reminiscing.