Fried Tripe
Dredge with flour, or dip in egg and cracker crumbs, fry in hot butter, or other fat, until a delicate brown on both sides, lay it on a dish, add vinegar to the gravy, and pour over the tripe (or the vinegar may be omitted, and the gravy added, or the tripe may be served without vinegar or gravy). Or make a batter by mixing gradually one cup of flour with one of sweet milk, then add an egg well beaten and a little salt; drain the tripe, dip in batter, and fry in hot drippings or lard. Salt pork and pig's-feet may be cooked by the same rule. In buying tripe get the "honey-combed." To fricassee tripe, cut it in narrow strips, add water or milk to it, and a good bit of butter rolled in flour, season with pepper and a little salt, let simmer slowly for some time, and serve hot garnished with parsley.
The recipe assumes something a modern cook has to supply: the tripe is already cooked. In 1877 tripe came from the butcher or the barrel scalded, limed and boiled tender, so all that remained was to brown it. Buy it as "cleaned" or "scalded" tripe today and it is still raw.
- Cook it tender firstSimmer the tripe in salted water until it yields easily to a fork before any flour or batter touches it. That is 1 1/2 to 3 hours depending on thickness; frying alone will never soften it, and undercooked tripe is rubbery no matter how delicate the crust.
- Honeycomb tripeThe direction to buy "honey-combed" still holds. This is the second stomach chamber, thinner and more tender than blanket or plain tripe, and its pockets hold batter and gravy. Most is sold bleached white; unbleached tripe is darker and has more flavour.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured milk, as opposed to buttermilk or clabber. Whole milk is the closest match. The batter of one cup flour, one cup milk and one egg is a pouring batter that gives a light coating rather than a thick shell.
- Cracker crumbsMade from soda or water crackers, drier and coarser than modern breadcrumbs. Crushed saltines or unsalted crackers are the direct equivalent; panko browns faster and will scorch at the same heat.
- Frying fat and heatButter, lard or beef drippings all work; butter alone browns fast, so clarify it or cut it with oil. Keep the pan at a steady medium-high, about 350-375F if you are measuring, and dry the tripe thoroughly, as the word "drain" is doing important work here.
- The vinegar gravyNo quantity is given. Start with a tablespoon of cider vinegar per half cup of pan drippings and taste; the point is a sharp counter to the fat, not a pickle. Deglaze off the heat so the vinegar does not turn harsh.
- The fricassee"Let simmer slowly for some time" means 20 to 30 minutes if the tripe is already tender, long enough for the butter rolled in flour to thicken the milk. Keep the milk below a boil to prevent it breaking.
- YieldA pound of cooked tripe serves two to three as a main course. The batter quantity given will coat well over that, so scale it down or expect leftover batter.
Tripe was cheap protein and a standard part of the American butcher's trade in the nineteenth century, which is why Buckeye Cookery treats it as matter-of-factly as it treats beefsteak. Cleaning it was slow, foul work involving repeated scalding and often lime, and by the 1870s much of that job could be left to the butcher shop or the packing house, where tripe was sold ready-boiled and sometimes pickled in brine and vinegar. That commercial trade may help account for the recipe's brevity and for its casual mention of vinegar, which was both a seasoning and a familiar companion to the ingredient. The offer of three finishes in a single entry, floured, battered, or fricasseed, and the aside that salt pork and pig's feet follow the same rule, is typical of the book's compression: an experienced cook needed a method, not a procedure.