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Tripe and Onions

Tripe and onions is a stew of tripe simmered with onions, milk, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tripe and Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tripe

  1. Cut the tripe into pieces.

  2. Place the tripe in a stewpan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil.

  3. Strain the tripe.

Simmer

  1. Return the tripe to the stewpan.

  2. Add milk, water, and salt. Bring to a boil.

  3. Add the sliced onions. Simmer for three hours.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the flour with a little milk. Add the flour mixture to the stewpan. Stir until boiling.

  2. Simmer for fifteen minutes. Season to taste.

  3. Serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tripe (in the method)
Main ingredient that becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the milky liquid into a light sauce when stirred to a boil.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and adds richness.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour mixture into the boiling liquid. Flour mixed with milk and added to hot liquid can clump if not stirred well. Stirring while it comes to a boil disperses the starch so it thickens evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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