Tripe: Preparing, Cooking

[Joel Hicks]

I am surpised to find that there is very little on this forum about a very famous or infamous ingredient, TRIPE. Tripe is loved and hated across all continents, probably hated allot more than it is loved. So i thought i would start a thread dedicated to Tripe. I would love to hear from everyone what their favourite preperations of tripe are, so that we can build a catalogue for tripers.

Personally i am not fan of tripe, but to be honest, i have never given tripe a chance. I am currently on holidays in Australia with my family, and was gifted to very rare tickets to a Rugby match, VIP tickets to watch Wallabies (Australia) V's the All Blacks (New Zealand). My fathers firend who gave me these tickets is a tripe addict. In fact he and his wife are member sof a tripe club here in Sydney Australia.

The tripe club in sydney is for the tripe die hard, or tripe tragic. They regularly take over restaurants monthly where the chefs of the restaurant is to prepare Tripe for the club members, and they try all manner of preperations, chinese, french, italian, indian etc.. as well as fine dining establishements. Cost is not a factor for the tripe tragic.

So as payment for the tickets, i am preparing tripe.

My inspiration is from the classic preperation "Trippa alla Milanese", with a few twists of my own. My basic ingredients are as follows.

1.2 Kg of honeycomb beef tripe - Par cooked and bleached

2 carrots

3 sticks of celery

2 onions

5 cloves of garlic

3 tbs of red wine vinegar

1/2 glass of white wine

2 400 g tinns of chopped tomatoes.

200 grams of bacon

200 grams of smoked polish veal sausage. (any spicy or smokey sausage will do)

400 grams of canellini beans

dried red chilli to your spice level

Sage Leaves

Bay Leaves

Garnish with;

Pecorino Romano

Mint and parsley

I am also using a pressure cooker to speed things up (the worlds first microwave).

Not very appertising to look, at but i am determined to make it into a masterpiece.

I intend to get a rich tomatoey, smokey tripe and bean stew, to be mopped up with artisan sour dough bread. I am writing this pre-tripe being cooked, it is in the pressure cooker as i write this and is smelling great. So i think that the key to this much maligned ingredient is building up layers of flavour....

Fingers crossed.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Joel Hicks (log)

[Joel Hicks]

Further to my post above, please have a look at the website for the Sydney tripe club.

http://www.tripesite.com.au/index.html

Joel

[Joel Hicks]

Just out of the pressure cooker, and it tastes delcious.

The offending tripe, close up. The honeycomb texture is excellent for holding onto the sauce.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Joel Hicks (log)

[Joel Hicks]

Here is the finished product, and it was deliscious!! I garnished with mint, and I stirred in a hole bunch of parsley, it was tasted warm and unctious.I woud definately make it again.

I am converted now to the benefits of tripe, and can add it to my nose to tail repetoire.

[minas6907]

The only way I have had tripe is in menudo, being 1/2 Mexican, I love that stuff, yummy.

[budrichard]

" probably hated allot more than it is loved."

I would debate that statement which probably the result of a very narrow expereince of cusines and cultures around the world.

The honeycomb tripe you are familiar with is not the only type of tripe. Commonaly known as 'Bible Tripe' because of its resemblance to pages in a book, it is commonly used in Chinese cuisine such as Black Bean Sauce with Tripe and Vietnamese Pho and is totally different than honeycomb tripe, being much finer and tender.

I have had tripe in many preperations including the afore mentioned Menudo.

It is very delicious and its stigma comes about because of its function in the animal.-Dick

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For me, the dislike comes from the texture of the tripes, rather than anything to do with its function in the animal (I'll happily eat liver pates!) I've only had properly prepared tripes two or three times in my life, and in those instances it was fabulous. However as far as my palate goes it's very hard to get tripe right.

I agree with Dick - the "hated more than loved" thing is a very narrow statement; I can tell you that in Latin America it's actually more popular than the meat of the same animals. Guatita, Guata, Menudo, 31, and a host of other dishes are both extremely popular and widely available; they use everything from chicken innards through pork tripes and finally 31 is beef intestines and other tripes.

[Joel Hicks]

If it so loved, where is it on egullet?

Anyway, i cooked it and loved it, and am trying to promote it somewhat in my nose to tail dining exploration.

Tripe as a word in itself is associated with rubbish, where i am from ayway. If someone is talking nonsense or or you dont believe what you are hearing, a common expression is "what aload of old tripe".

Enjoy and stop typing tripe

Joel

[budrichard]

"If it so loved, where is it on egullet?"

It may suprise you to know that first, eGullet is not THE most popular eSite with knowledgeable individuals on the Internet and second, most of the individuals using tripe as food, DO NOT have Internet access and indeed probably do not have electricity.-Dick

BTW, a simple search across all eGullet Forums, yields many pages of Posts containing the word 'tripe'.

EOT for me!

Edited August 13, 2012 by budrichard (log)

[lochaven]

Joel:

Thanks for posting the Tripe Club site.

I've also seen an old Julia show where she cooks tripe. Most of my friends recoil at the site of menudo, which I like.

Then you have my brother who gags at the smell of bananas -- go figure.

Hey Dick: So which sites have more knowledgeable individuals on the internet ???

[budrichard]

"Hey Dick: So which sites have more knowledgeable individuals on the internet ??? "

There are a number of Chef Forums on the Internet.

A Google search on 'Chef Forum' would yield a list that you can puruse.-Dick

[MickeyB]

Joel,

[MickeyB]

Joel,

I have a couple of friends who, like myself, love tucking in to a bowl of a spicy meat dish with lots of thickish sauce, mopping it up with a fresh loaf of bread. So about once or twice a month I prepare such a dish. The three of us are very fond of innards of all kinds, so quite often I make the dish with Honeycomb Beef Tripe, Beef Lung, and Chicken Gizzards (Stomach), all mixed together.

We live in Israel, where it is quite popular to eat very spicy (fiery hot) food.

The following recipe will produce a very spicy and very hot saucy dish, which may not suit a lot of people, but of course it may be toned down. Here it is:

700 grams of honeycomb beef tripe - Par cooked and bleached - cut into bite size

300 - 400 grams of beef lung - major air pipes removed - Par boiled 20 minutes and thoroughly washed.- cut into bite size

400 grams of chicken gizards - thoroughly washed and cut in two.

12 -15 cloves of garlic

1 large onion roughly chopped

50 grams of fresh ginger roughly chopped

6 large very hot fresh peppers (green and red mixed) roughly chopped - I don't know if chillies is the right name, in Israel we get a local variety which is 4-8 inches long and extremely hot. The main point is the fresh flavor and very hot.

Roots of a whole bunch of fresh green Corriander - chopped.

Grind the previous four items together into a smooth paste - add juice of one fresh green lime.

1 kg of onions finely chopped.

2 ripe fresh tomatos finely chopped.

1 can of chopped tomatos

3 Tbs of tomato puree

Whole Spices:

4 inch cinnamon bark

4 cloves

4 plump green cardamom pods - split open

Freshly ground spices:

2 Tbs corriander seeds

2 Tbs Cumin seeds

1 tsp black pepper corns

1 tsp Caraway seeds

2-4 Allspice corns

6-8 dry red bird eye chilley peppers

8 - 10 seeds of Fenugreek (optional)

Herbs:

2-4 Bay leaves

10-20 fresh curry leaves

a whole bunch of fresh Corriander - with stalks - chopped

Thickening:

2 Tbs of white Sesame seeds or Cashew nuts or Pistachio nuts - Ground to smooth paste with a little oil

Method:

Fry finely chopped onions in large stewing pot with plenty of vegetable oil on medium heat till very light golden color

Add about 3/4 of the garlic, onion, chilli and ginger paste, stirring frequently.

After 5 minutes, add whole spices.

After 2-3 minutes lower the heat, add ground spices, stir well, add oil if too dry.

After 5 minutes (stirring), raise heat to medium, add tomato puree, fresh chopped tomatos, Bay leaves and curry leaves. Stir frequently.

After 5 minutes, lower heat.

After another 5 minutes slowly add 4 cups of boling water or Beef stock, stir well.

When sauce returns to slow rolling boil, add all meats, stir well, raise heat to high, until return to slow boli, then reduce heat to low.

Add salt to taste, juice of 1 fresh green lime, 1/2 - 1 Tbs sugar, and some red chilli powder to prefferd heat.

Cover well, leave to cook very slowly on very low heat for 1.5 hours.

In a small frying pan, heat some oil, (2-3 Tbs).

when hot, add remainder of Onion,Garlic,chilly paste, stir slowly on low heat.

After 5 minutes, add ground seeds or nuts, stirring continuously.

After 2 minutes, add very slowly a cup of water or stock, sirring untill thickens and small oil droplets form on top.

Add contents of frying pan to stewing pot, stir well, cover and let simmer for another 15 -30 minutes, checking if the meats are sufficiently soft.

Add chopped Corriander, check seasoning, add salt, sugar and lime juice to taste.

Serve with a fresh loaf of bread in deep bowls with plenty of gravy.

Enjoy.

MickeyB

[Joel Hicks]

Thanks Mickey B, i will give it a go and post the results. It seems a very indian dish in terms of the ingredients and the cooking methods, especially with all those onions.

Cheers

Joel

[MickeyB]

" It seems a very indian dish in terms of the ingredients and the cooking methods, especially with all those onions."

Joel,

I confess. It is using some very Indian ingredients and method. But you may notice some basic classic curry ingredients are missing, which I thought resulted in a taste that is very suitable to Tripe and lungs. The resultant taste I got was much darker and heavier than a classic curry due to the higher proportion of cumin to corriander seeds, and to the large ammount of garlic and lack of Haldi (Turmeric). Anyway, I will not apologize for borrowing from the wonderful Indian kitchen. I think they have perfected the art of cooking meat with a lot of tasty gravy. I hope you try it, and am curious to get your verdict. On reading the recipe again I found two omisions:

1. There are five items to grind together into a smooth paste, not four.

2. I forgot to say to add the can of chopped tomatos together with the chopped fresh ones.

MickeyB