Baken Goetta

I hesitated for a long time before deciding to send this product freely into cyberspace. The primary reason for the hesitation was that Baken Goetta is a tremendous modern day food item; that I considered producing for sale. Other reasons for the procrastination include: fabricating Baken Goetta is beyond the knife skill level and/or meat equipment ownership (decent size meat grinders in particular) of most of the home processors that I routinely attempt to help. And, retail shop personnel would likely not spend their own time learning how to make it. There does however exist a retail meat inspection exemption for on-site retail meat further processing. Retail establishments do need to satisfy local boards of health. I could provide hands-on retail store training for a small fee. It appears that other food writers and further processing meat plant R&D personnel will be the primary beneficiaries of this promising new product information. In the end, I’m primarily motivated to add value to underutilized mainstream meat cuts (pork butts in this case) and to help high quality Goetta go mainstream. If you wish to learn more about basic High Quality pork Goetta (Click Here). https://meatmentor.com/goetta-life/

It was named Baken Goetta, with Baken being a play on words; the precooking of this product is baked in shallow pans (no stirring). And, it has the cured meat characteristics (unique color & flavor) and the hardwood smoke aroma of real bacon. Significantly, Baken Gpetta displays much more end-product bind than other Goetta products.

Nitrite is sometimes considered to be an unhealthy food additive, but humans have a long successful history of using it and its anaerobic antimicrobial benefits are often cited to help justify its usage. Using cure accelerator is a good manufacturing (GMP) because it facilitates the continuous production of cured meat items, plus greatly reduces any residual nitrite that might otherwise exist in a cured meat end-products. Cure accelerator speeds the conversion of nitrite to nitric oxide. As for sodium phosphate (which I also use in Baken Goetta), it is normally used in real bacon making to inhibit fat oxidation (as does cure) and to increase cooked product moisture retention. There are no known health risks associated with limited usage of sodium phosphate. On the definite up side, oats are considered to be one of the top 10 most healthy foods. Plus, oats can act as fat mimics in low-fat meat products. The healthiness on lean pork and onions is pretty much a given.

If fried turkey lunchmeat can be termed bacon, this Goetta variation can surely be designated Baken Goetta. Aside from desirable bacon-like characteristics, Baken Goetta also displays the unique grainy bite and mild sausage flavor that is revered by conventional Goetta fans.

Currently, highly processed vegetable containing meat items, as well as total meat mimics, are in vogue. Caramel coloring is often the additive used to dye soy grits so they color match precooked meat. Less conventional GMO science is also being used in some totally fake meat science experiments. Whereas, Baken Goetta provides the conventional meat science benefits of grain containing sausages. Browned Baken Goetta slices are eye appealing and delicious.

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Bacon Goetta production begins with lean retail-trim pork shoulder butts. Being a historically underutilized sub-primal cut, pork shoulder butts can often be purchased inexpensively even at the retail sales level. The mouth-feel of oats replaces some of the need for fat (oats act as a fat mimic). And, sticky cooked oats help increase end-product bind, especially when they hold meat shreds and onion fibers together. The superior bind of Baken Goetta is brought about by four factors. Listed in order of bind potential they are: salt soluble meat protein extraction, the stickiness of cooked oats, meat shreds and onion fibers. Admittedly, Maillard reaction surface browning alone is sometimes enough to hold low quality Goetta patties together. Thick slicing and not smashing Goetta thin as is fries can also help keep low bind Goetta patties intact.

Here we have bowls containing closely trimmed lean, fat and objectionable materials (mostly bone & lymph nodes).

Lean went 3 times through a 3/4 inch hole size meat grinder plate. It is important to soften the raw pork for increased salt-soluble protein extraction, yet at the same time we want to maintain some larger meat pieces. The binding attributes of meat shreds is somewhat lessened by coarse grinding, but after extracted protein coagulates during pre-cooking it more than makes up for the decrease in meat shreds. Baken Goetta bind is also enhanced by way of increasing the percentage of meat over the percentage of oats, compared to most Goetta recipes. Therefore, Baken Goetta easily meets the USDA standard for Goetta of being formulated with at least 50% meat. What happened to the common sense enforcement of the USDA Bacon standard? “The term bacon is used to describe the cured belly of a swine carcass. If meat from other portions of the carcass is used, the product name must be qualified to identify the
portions.” Turkey must be a portion of the pork carcass. Sounds as if one could pay the right law makers and Grotta could be labeled Imposable Goetta etc.

Well chilled fat and onion go once through a 3/16 inch grinder plate. That practice reduces fat particle size to the point where there are no fat globs in the finished product and onion fibers are small enough to eventfully (after precooking) become unnoticeable. A little fat helps with flavor and juiciness. Onion fibers contribute to bind. A lot of folks believe that fat and gelled collagen are important for Goetta bind. That is true in when Goetta is in the formed & chilled state, but upon slice frying they both liquefy.

Fat and onion after being ground together. At the end of grinding, a little bread can be used to push most of the fat and onion out of the grinder head. Grind fat & onion after lean pork. Any lean left in the grinder head should be ground with fat & onion.

Fat was not figured into the batch formulation. Whatever fat the retail trim butts yielded, is what was used. The remainder if the batch was 11.5 pounds of lean pork, 2.33 teaspoons of Prague powder #1, .25 teaspoon sodium eyrthorbate, 2.75 teaspoons of sodium phosphate, about 1.15 cups of water to dissolve the above additives in, 3.45 TBSP of leaf marjoram, 3.5 medium size onions, 1.15 TBSP fine ground black pepper, 2.33 TBSP salt, 5.75 cups of steel-cut/pinhead oats, 6.9 cups of water for oat hydration and 5 teaspoons of liquid smoke. If you want to see how to do simple batch ingredient adjustment (Click Here). https://meatmentor.com/batch-size-adjustment/ A relatively low salt percentage was used, but it is high enough for good salt-soluble protein extraction. Don’t forget that most retail pork now comes lightly pumped with a salt-water solution (minimally processed) to enhance cooked product moisture retention, and that there is also some salt in sodium nitrite, sodium eythorbate and sodium phosphate.

Dissolve sodium phosphate in a little water and lightly mix it in with pork and onion. It is considered a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) to mix sodium phosphate in first because it does not dissolve well in the presence of salt.

Add dry seasonings, including salt, and mix in for a few minutes.

Dissolve cure, then cure accelerator. Add liquid smoke last and blend the meat-mix until it becomes sticky. Cover meat mix and refrigerate. The meat mix should be taken out of refrigeration a time or two, while being held overnight, and mixed for a short period of time. Notice that the addition of cure immediately darkened the fresh meat.

I own a 17 pound capacity hand-crank meat mixer that fits into our refrigerator, it works well for periodic mixing. Salt-soluble protein extraction is best accomplished by a combination of added moisture, mechanical agitation and rest periods between mixing (time).

Add oat hydration water as soon as the meat mix is under refrigeration. Cover oats and hold overnight in the refrigerator.

This is what things look like the next morning.

When the hydrated oats are first mixed into the batch it will be loose enough to stir with a substantial spoon.

Continue mixing until the batch becomes viscous.

Tightly pat raw mix into rectangular pans or glass dishes. You might want to use a rolling pin on the top. Only fill pans about 3/4 full so they don’t boil over. Place cookie sheets under pans, in case of boil overs.

Tightly cover with aluminum foil.

Place pans in a 250F oven. Rotate pans after one and a half hours to facilitate both pans cooking at about the same rate. The goal of around 190F internal was achieved after cooking 3 hours. Cooking to 190F internal assures that oats become adequately softened.

Notice the amount of free liquid around the Baken Goetta when they first come out of the oven. As you can see, there is no problem removing Baken Goetta from cooking pans or dishes.

A lot of the free liquid reabsorbs when the Baken Goetta is left sitting in the liquid as it cools. Only a small amount of fat and gelatin does not reabsorb.

Cut each pan into 6 rectangles and seal Lil slabs in a sandwich size bag. Double wrap by using gallon bags, as shown. Freeze immediately and rapidly (spread packages out in the freezer).

Partially microwave thaw blocks and slice into 1/4 inch thick lengths using a bread knife. Brown up as desired using a little cooking oil. Very convenient: it takes about 10 minutes from freezer to plate. Great with over easy eggs. Enjoy.

Addendum: This product could be commercially precooked in cans; just as Spam is. That practice would make Baken Goetta ultra convenient for consumers and there would not be any manufacturing cooking loss of this water-added, meat containing item ($).