Goetta, meet bacon

There is a widely-held opinion that bacon has the power to make any food taste better. Glier's Goetta is testing that theory with a new variety of goetta they are about to launch. Yes, it has happened. Bacon and goetta have met, gone on a date, and moved in together.

Glier's Bacon goetta makes its debut this weekend at the Bacon, Bourbon and Brew Festival in Newport.

Goetta, long beloved for breakfast in Cincinnati, has found new versatility in recent years, ending up in links, crumbled in fried rice, as a topping for burgers. But the recipe for the goetta itself hasn't undergone a lot of experimentation.

Maybe that's because the combination of steel-cut oats, beef and pork is just about perfect, and so connected to pleasant nostalgic feelings for Cincinnatians. Glier's does make a hot goetta and a turkey goetta. (They have discontinued their all-beef version.) But this is a more radical re-invention.

Dan Glier, owner of the company that is the world's largest purveyor of goetta, said the idea started with his son David and his 30-something" friends. "They love goetta and were teasing me about making goetta bacon," he said. "We couldn't think of any way to put goetta in bacon, but we could put bacon in goetta." He and his wife made 6-8 test batches at home before scaling it up to commercial size.

Crumbled, cooked bacon is added to the standard mixture, along with a little smoke flavor and some brown sugar to amplify the bacon taste.

It's not available yet, mostly because they're waiting for new plastic casings to come from Austria, but a few testers and I had a chance at a taste. It is an interesting eating experience. It looks just like goetta, retaining its bumpy texture, getting a very crisp outside while still soft inside, but has the overall flavor of bacon. It takes a few bites before it's obvious what's going on, but the taste is every bit as good as the idea.

It will debut at this weekend's festival, which takes place at the Newport Levee , Friday-Tuesday and again at Glier's Goettafest in Newport Aug. 6-9. It will be available in retail stores just after that.