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Tripe, Stewed

A hearty stew of tripe simmered with bay leaves, mace, butter, vinegar, and rusk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Tripe, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tripe

  1. Cut the tripe into pieces half an inch wide and two inches long.

  2. Wash the tripe in warm water.

Boil the tripe

  1. Place the tripe in a stew pan, cover with boiling water, and boil for 3 hours, replenishing with boiling water as needed.

  2. Drain the tripe in a colander and return it to the stew pan, covering it again with boiling water.

  3. Add the bay leaves and mace, and boil for 1.5 hours.

Finish and thicken

  1. Stir in the butter, black pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

  2. In a frying pan, mix the browned flour with some of the tripe liquor and boil for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Stir the mixture into the tripe, then add the crushed rusk and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + cidertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together658 recipes

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Main body of the dish, becoming tender through long boiling.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, mild flavour of the stew.
Browned flour
Thickens the cooking liquor into a light gravy when boiled.
Crushed rusk
Absorbs liquid and helps thicken the stew as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Boiling the tripe with the bay leaves and mace for 1.5 hours. Tripe is tough and needs long, steady simmering to become tender. Boiling too hard or too briefly leaves it rubbery, and the liquid must be topped up with boiling water so the tripe stays covered and cooks evenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cider, vinegar, flour. 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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