Protein-lovers: is tripe your favorite cut? If not, maybe it should be. It has more protein than a steak and only a fraction of the fat – a great place to start for a nutrient-dense meal. How to improve this cut? Start with a generous amount of butter and pan-fry. Butter-Fried Tripe is quick and easy, yielding a cut that is crispy on the exterior and giving on the inside!
A worthless cut?
According to Vocabulary.com,
In Old French, tripe meant “guts” or “entrails used as food,” and in the 1500s it came to informally mean “worthless person.” Today, tripe is also “any nonsense or rubbish,” particularly if it’s written or spoken.
Forty-four percent of a beef carcass is considered byproduct and often waste. This often includes almost all of the most nutrient-dense organ meat and offal cuts. Yep, tripe counts!
The first stomach (or rumen) makes up nearly half of all the stomach tissue. The second stomach (reticulum, or honeycomb tripe) is typically preferred. However, this cut makes up only 11 percent of the stomach. Indeed, much the time that I purchase tripe, I receive either the blanket or shag-styled tripe from the first stomach.
Since organ meats have fallen out of favor in the mid-20th Century, they all seem to be ‘worthless’ from a cultural context. If we can find beautiful, nourishing preparations though, we are incentivized to bring them back.
Butter-Fried Tripe
I tend to start with large cuts of tripe and I tried a couple of variations when I prepared this dish. In one version, I served the Butter-Fried Tripe with gremolata. (Gremolata is a sauce of parsley, lemon zest and raw garlic – with optional anchovies.) In a second version, I added onion to the tripe, and garnished with red wine vinegar and parsley.
In the end, a combined version had the best reviews. Sauteed onions and vinegar added bright and sweet tones. The colorful garnish of the gremolata was most attractive. In the recipe that follows, I’ve extracted the most flavorful and beautiful of both. Enjoy!