Menudo: Mexican tripe soup, or affectionately, cow’s stomach soup

Even though I have a savory palate and wouldn’t mind soup most mornings for breakfast (especially through winter), the kids don’t love that idea.  In fact, I would say that they don’t even like that idea.  Unless, of course, it is menudo, Mexican tripe soup, as adapted from Rick Bayless in Authentic Mexican Cooking – affectionately known around our place as ‘cow’s stomach soup.’

There are three critical ingredients to this soup and you simply can’t make it without all three: the tripe (cow’s stomach), marrow bones, and some trotters (pig’s feet).  For me, the limiting factor in making this soup is getting the tripe.  I’m sure they have it at the local Mexican grocery, but I’m always looking for higher-quality pastured meats.

My local farmers can’t sell it to me per USDA limitations, and I used to order it online from grass-fed Argentine cattle.  It would come as honeycomb tripe (from the reticulum/second stomach) in 1-2 lb portions. Cream-colored and clean.  I didn’t know this then, but it would come ‘dressed’ – meaning that it had been boiled and bleached with food-grade lye, giving it the common white color.  And I would soak it in salt and lime juice, and boil it again.  Presumably, the initial boil in all modern tripe recipes are to remove any odors from the bleaching, though I didn’t know that at the time.  Regardless, in the past year, my online source discontinued it.

Can’t go without

I have no idea how this happened, but menudo has become a serious favorite in our home.  (Ok, I do know – it’s because everything I have ever made from Authentic Mexican Cooking is delicious and then some.)

Regardless, I hadn’t made it for a couple of months since I couldn’t get more tripe in the usual places.  Meanwhile, my kids keep harassing me about it.  Every Wednesday (soup night), they ask if it’s cow’s stomach soup and when I say no, they claim they don’t want dinner and have little fits. Ugh.  When your kids are begging for organ meats and marrow in a super gelatinous broth, it’s not the kind of opportunity you want to miss.

So I called the Amish.

And they delivered.

The tripe

But here’s the thing.  The Amish are the real deal in the back-to-the-land food world, right? When I said I wanted tripe, they said sure.  They had a slaughter coming up in a couple of days, and would package and send me some, even though no one usually asks for it.  So they sent me a box of about 12 or 13 lbs (six ~2 lb vacuum packed portions).  They charged me the record price of $1.50/lb.  (Crazy how no one wants these trusty organ meats!)

Unprocessed tripe, oh my!

However, when it arrived I realized that something was amiss.  This tripe was not white.  It was dark… greenish… And it was not honeycomb tripe.  Was it even edible?!  Seems that this tripe was right off the cow and packaged.  Totally unprocessed.  Yep, the real deal.  Even for me, this was pretty overwhelming.  What to do?

Toward courage

First, I had to look at it in my chest freezer for at least a month. Ok, three months.  Claiming that I didn’t have any tripe every time my kids asked.

Then, I had to do some research online.  I learned that all the stomachs are edible – so that’s good.  I still didn’t know which stomach (or stomachs) I had, but at least it was considered food (somewhere in the world).  And I learned about the bleaching, which I probably wouldn’t have wanted if I had the choice anyway.  Of course, having not known, I was perfectly happy with my earlier dressed tripe.

Anyway, since I found this whole process to be a bit scary, I decided that Halloween would be a good time to tackle this project. So I took a package out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost.

Then, after it defrosted, I continued to look at it for a couple of days.

And only then, in the face of it possibly going bad, did I muster the courage to actually open that package of tripe.

Cleaning it up

Blanket tripe, dressed

To clean it up, I cut off any connective tissue or fats that didn’t look like part of the tripe we wanted to eat. Then I rubbed the tripe with salt and soaked it in vinegar for about a minute.  I rinsed it and rubbed it well. I repeated the salt, vinegar, rinse steps at least a half dozen times.

Blanket tripe, dressed and blanched

When the color had lightened significantly, I cut the blanket, or flat, tripe (from the rumen/first stomach) into the 1/2 inch strips, and then into bite size pieces. I covered it in clean water, brought it to a boil, skimmed the foam/impurities from the surface and simmered on medium for 10 minutes.  I confess that I did this twice, just to be sure it was clean.  On the second boil, there was virtually no foam though, and I felt ready to proceed.

Bringing home the farm

Be warned though, when I first opened the package of tripe, it smelled like the farm.  Clean green grass.  My hands smelled of fragrant summery grass.  A farm.  In our condo.  Maybe I was just sensitive.

But when I boiled the tripe, my daughter in the other room called out to me, “Mommy? Why does it smell like a farm in our house?” It really did smell like green grass and I wasn’t sure I could get over it.

“It’s the cow’s stomach,” I replied. “Oh,” she answered, completely unbothered.

It’s still amazing to me how my kids take this all in stride because it’s all they’ve ever known, even while I routinely have to overcome my own trepidation.  I had to wash my hands in lemon juice more than once.  As much as I love all this grass-fed beef, I could go without the farm overwhelming my senses each time I reached out or raised my arms.

After the fact

I didn’t know how much of that grassy smell would stay with us, potentially flavoring the soup too strongly.  Not at all, as it turns out.  In fact, once the soup came together, I recognized a faint grass smell from the earlier soup though I couldn’t have placed it before.

Disclaimer

I confess that I’ve never had menudo in Mexico.  In fact, I’ve never actually had it anywhere other than my own kitchen!  A Mexican friend generously insists that this version is plenty good.  They taught us to eat the soup by dipping corn tortillas into it, and we have dutifully served it that way ever since.

In the meantime, serving my family organ meats and marrow in a gelatinous broth makes me feel like everything will be all right. So I’ll keep making it. Every time they ask.

Menudo, Mexican tripe soup

November 10, 2017

by Janine Farzin

Cuisine Mexican

Category Tripe

Persons

6

Cook Time

4 hours, 40 minutes

Total Time

4 hours, 40 minutes

Notes

I use more water than the original recipe calls for, but then cook the soup for a bit longer to ensure that the tripe is tender. Also, I don't mind having a long cook time since I can do other things (in or out of the house) while the soup cooks. Optionally, you could reduce the water by a quart and cook for 2-3 hours if you want to move along.

Ingredients

For the soup

• 2 lbs beef tripe, cleaned and boiled for 10 minutes, cut into 1-2 inch size pieces
• 1 pig's trotter (optionally cut in half)
• 1 lb marrow bones, cut into pieces
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 2 t oregano, plus garnish
• 6-8 chile guajillos (half of a 4oz bag) with ends cut off and all seeds and veins removed
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• salt

For the garnish

• sliced lime
• 1/2 chopped onion (the remainder from above)
• chopped or dried oregano,
• sliced radishes
• cayenne (optional)
• warm corn tortillas

Instructions

1. Clean the tripe, as described above for fresh tripe or by soaking in a generous spoonful of salt and the juice of a lime/vinegar for 30 minutes. Rinse well. In a pot, cover with a couple inches water and bring to a boil. Skim any foam and simmer on medium for 10 minutes. Pour through a colander to drain water.
2. Return tripe to pot, along with the marrow bones and trotter. Add 3-4 quarts water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low, and skim any foam that has risen or comes up in the first few minutes.  After skimming the foam, add half of the garlic, half of the onion, and the oregano.  Partially cover and simmer for ~4 hours, until the tripe is very tender.  The tripe really should be succulent and a longer cooking time, or a slightly higher temp (up to medium if it doesn't seem to be a hearty simmer) really does help.  
3. When the tripe is tender, heat a cast iron pan or griddle and heat up chili pieces: lay them on the pan and press down with a metal spatula until they brown or blister.  Then flip and do the same on the other side. They should be fragrant.  Remove these pieces to a small bowl and cover with boiling water, while keeping them submerged.  I usually use a pasta/salad bowl and set a small dessert plate on top that sinks down and keeps the chiles covered.  Soak for 30 minutes and drain.
4. In the meantime, while the chiles are soaking, remove the trotter and marrow bones from the pot. If the marrow hasn't fallen out, poke it out and return it to the pot. Let the pig's feet cool a bit and then save everything you can - all of the skin, softened connective tissue, fat or meat (discarding bones and any tough pieces of cartilage) - and chop all into small pieces.  Return all of this to the pot.
5. Back to the chiles: after they have soaked for 30 minutes, place the drained chiles in a blender jar, along with the remaining garlic, the cumin and a couple ladles of broth.  Blend until smooth, then pour through a medium-mesh sieve into the soup pot.  Add more liquid to blender jar to get all the remains out and into the sieve.  I like to push through the sieve with the back of the ladle in a circular motion to get all the juices out, and then scrape the bottom of the sieve with a spatula to get as much chili as possible into the soup.
6. Season the soup with salt (a generous amount of salt recommended) and simmer for another half hour or so to let the flavors meld together.
7. Serve the soup with available garnishes. Pass each in a ramekin for adding individually: sliced lime, remaining onion, sliced radishes, oregano, and optional cayenne. Warm the corn tortillas by wrapping in a dish towel and steaming first; use these to dip into soup.

Tags

gluten-free,

Mexican

https://offallygoodcooking.com/menudo-mexican-tripe-soup/