> wrote:

> I see them at Grocery stores. How do Americans cook it? I never see it
> served at any restaurant.

"Ethnic" tripe dishes, not specifically American ones, I'd say.
Americans can be of any ethnicity, of course, or can be just interested
in the dishes. Menudo (spicy Mexican tripe soup) comes to mind at once
(only the southern Mexican rendition, as it omits the inedible hominy),
as well as such Italian dishes as trippa alla fiorentina (or alla
romana, alla genovese etc.), the Ligurian sbira or the Lombardian büsêca
(variously spelt and traditionally made with three kinds of tripe), the
French tripes à la mode de Caen or the Lyonais gras double, the Spanish
callos a la madrileña, the Greek patsás, the Turkish iskembe çorbasi,
the Bulgarian shkembe chorba, the Polish flaki, the German saure
Kutteln, the Caribbean/Latin-American mondongo, the Korean gopchang
jeongol, various and sundry Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipino tripe
dishes, too numerous to mention by name. Then there is, of course, the
venerable English (Lancastrian) tripe and onions.

Here is a very good recipe for the latter, as well as its extension,
gratin of tripe. The recipes are from the great Fergus Henderson's
"Nose to Tail Eating".

Victor

Tripe and Onions
To feed four

Do not let the tripe word deter you, let its soothing charms win you
over and enjoy it as do those who always have!

1 litre milk
3 white onions, peeled and roughly chopped
a healthy pinch of mace blades
2 kg white honeycomb tripe (which comes from the second stomach, the
reticulum, of the ox), cut into 4 cm x 11 cm strips
sea salt and pepper
150 g unsalted butter
200 g plain flour

In a pot large enough to fit all the ingredients, place the milk,
onions, and mace. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes.
Then add the tripe and season cautiously with salt and pepper (you can
add more later). Bring up to a gentle boil and reduce again to a simmer
for a further 45 minutes to 1 hour, checking the tripe's giving
qualities with a sharp knife. Be careful, as, if cooked too long, tripe
will just melt away.

Now, in another pan, melt the butter and add the flour. Cook this,
stirring to avoid browning, until it smells biscuity. Continue stirring
vigorously (a whisk might be useful here) and add a couple of ladles of
the liquor from the tripe pot. Once thoroughly mixed and smooth, return
this mixture to the tripe. Stir in thoroughly and simmer for a further
15 minutes to allow the dish to thicken slightly. Adjust seasoning to
taste and serve hot, using a slotted spoon, with mashed potatoes.

Visually, as well as gastronomically, there is a great serenity to a
plate of tripe and onions.


Gratin of Tripe
To serve four

Follow the previous recipe to its conclusion except instead of serving
the tripe and onions with mashed potato, decant the tripe and its sauce
into 4 ovenproof dishes (I think this is the only time I recommend
individual dishes, but this recipe works well this way and everyone
loves their own little gratin). Cover with a layer of fine white
breadcrumbs made with yesterday's bread, dot with little knobs of butter
and place the dishes in a very hot oven until the tripe liquor is
bubbling away. If the crust has not browned at this point, stick the
dishes under the grill. When the dishes are golden brown they are ready
to serve.

The eaters will each need a spoon as well as the usual tools, and advise
them to stick their napkins in their collars to protect their fronts as,
unlike Tripe and Onions, which is given structure by mashed potato, so
helping the journey from the plate to the mouth, tripe gratinéed,
without this structural aid, is very sloppy.