Sour tripe

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 ½ kg tripe, pre-cooked, spot or tripe, sliced
• 2 m.-sized onion(s)
• 150 g bacon, diced, possibly smoked
• 300 ml red wine
• 3 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp, heaped butter
• 3 tbsp flour, or a little more, depending on the butter specification
• Sugar, approx. 1 – 3 tsp
• salt and pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 allspice berries
• 3 carnations
• 2 juniper berries, crushed
• some nutmeg, freshly grated
• possibly soy sauce, dark

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 15 minutes

You either love it or you hate it!

Fry the diced bacon in the butter. Add a little sugar and fry the diced onions until light brown to dark. Stir in the flour and fry until a roux is formed. (All variations are possible, from light to dark roux. I prefer darker. For the dark version, don’t fry the diced onions quite as dark beforehand.) Then deglaze with the red wine. Add the tripe, bay leaves, cloves, nutmeg, juniper berries, allspice, and a little vinegar and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar and serve with fried potatoes or farmhouse bread. Notes: If you’re starting with a dark roux, you can also add dark soy sauce to taste. If you can get the tripe directly from the slaughterhouse, I would prefer that option and buy cleaned tripe flaps. This has advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantages: Cutting it yourself, longer cooking time. Advantages: Cheaper price, tastes much better and more intense, as the semi-raw tripe cooks much longer and can therefore absorb the flavors of the broth much better and more intensely. (The tripe from the supermarket is usually overcooked and hardly absorbs any flavor.) By cutting the tripe yourself, you can determine how thick or thin the strips are. Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, you can add 1 heaped tablespoon of fried onions.