To Fry Tripe
Cut the tripe after it has been boiled, into strips about four inches wide and six long. Make a batter with two eggs, one teacup of flour and a little milk. Pepper the tripe and roll it in the batter. Fry in a pan of hot lard; as soon as one side is done, turn it over on the other side.--Mrs. P. W.
A short recipe that assumes the cook already has a pot of boiled tripe on hand, which is where nearly all the work lies. The frying itself is a ten-minute job.
- The boiling is the recipeFrying will not tenderize tripe. Honeycomb tripe, even the "cleaned and bleached" product sold today, needs a long simmer with aromatics until a knife goes through with no resistance, typically 1.5 to 3 hours. If it squeaks or springs back, it is not ready to batter.
- Strip sizeFour by six inches is a large piece by modern habit and awkward to turn in a domestic skillet. Pieces of two or three inches square fry more evenly and are easier to eat; keep them a uniform thickness so they cook at the same rate.
- A teacup of flourA period teacup is usually reckoned at somewhat less than a modern measuring cup, commonly about 3/4 cup, though the measure was never standardized. With two eggs and "a little milk" that gives a thick coating batter; add milk a spoonful at a time until it clings to the tripe like heavy cream rather than running off.
- Dry the tripe firstBoiled tripe holds a great deal of water and batter will slide off wet surfaces. Blot the strips thoroughly, and a light dusting of flour before dipping helps the batter grip.
- SeasoningOnly pepper is mentioned. Salt the batter and the tripe as well; boiled tripe is bland and needs it. Cayenne, mustard powder or a little grated onion in the batter are all in keeping with the book.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard is still the best choice here, but any neutral fat works. Half an inch in a heavy skillet at 350 to 365F gives the crisp shell intended; below that the batter soaks fat, above it the coating colors before it sets. Two to three minutes a side is plenty since the tripe is already cooked.
- Yield and servingA pound of cooked tripe battered this way will serve two or three as a main dish. Lemon, vinegar, mustard or a sharp tomato sauce are common accompaniments and cut the richness.
Tripe -- the stomach lining of a cow -- was a cheap, filling staple of Southern and British kitchens well into the twentieth century, and Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) gives it several treatments alongside brains, sweetbreads and pigs' feet, reflecting a household economy in which little from a slaughtered animal was discarded. Tripe was often bought partly prepared, sold from a butcher or a market stall after being scalded and scraped, but it still demanded hours of boiling at home before it could be used, which is why a recipe like this one begins mid-process. Battering and frying boiled tripe was one common way of bringing it to table, and the book's habit of crediting contributors -- here "Mrs. P. W." -- reflects its origin as a compilation of recipes gathered from Virginia housekeepers by its editor, Marion Cabell Tyree.