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Tripe Bordelaise
Take one and one-half pounds of tripe and cut it into a dozen lozenge-shaped pieces and let them marinade for two hours in one tablespoonful of oil, with a pinch of salt, half a pinch of pepper, one bay-leaf, one sprig of thyme, half a dozen whole peppers, the juice of a lemon and a crushed clove of garlic. Drain, roll them in flour, then in beaten eggs, and lastly in sifted breadcrumbs. Fry them in one ounce of clarified butter in a pan for five or six minutes on either side, and serve with one gill of maitre d'hotel butter, adding to it one teaspoonful of meat glaze.
Oscar's kitchen bought tripe from a butcher who had already boiled it for hours; the recipe begins at the point where the tripe is tender. That single unstated step is the difference between this dish and an inedible one.
- Pre-cook the tripe firstHoneycomb beef tripe is usually sold bleached and scalded but not cooked through. Unless it is sold ready-cooked, simmer it in salted water, or water with an onion and bay, for 2 to 3 hours until a knife goes through easily, then cool it before cutting and marinating. Breaded and fried from raw, it stays rubbery no matter how long it is in the pan.
- Lozenge-shaped piecesDiamonds of roughly 2 by 3 inches, cut from flat sheets of the cooked tripe. A dozen from a pound and a half means fairly substantial pieces; trim away any thick, gristly edges.
- Whole peppersWhole black peppercorns, six of them, in the marinade. They flavour the oil and are discarded with the herbs at draining.
- A gillHalf a cup, which is a generous amount of compound butter for four servings. Maitre d'hotel butter is softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper; make it ahead and let it soften rather than melt.
- Meat glazeGlace de viande: brown stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. Commercial demi-glace or a reduced veal stock concentrate stands in; one teaspoon is there for depth and colour, not for volume.
- Clarified butterOne ounce will not fry twelve breaded pieces without scorching. Use enough to film a large pan properly, 3 to 4 tablespoons, and add more between batches. Clarified butter is specified because the milk solids in whole butter burn at frying heat.
- Frying timeFive or six minutes a side assumes moderate heat and already-cooked tripe; the object is a set, golden crust. Over high heat the crumbs will be dark well before that, so keep the pan at a steady medium and fry in batches rather than crowding.
- YieldThree pieces each, four servings as a first course. Serve immediately with the butter melting over the hot crust and a lemon wedge.
Tripe a la bordelaise in this form has nothing to do with the red-wine-and-marrow bordelaise sauce of the restaurant repertoire; in nineteenth-century French usage the name attached to several Bordeaux preparations, and for tripe it is often said to have meant pieces marinated with oil, lemon, garlic and herbs, then crumbed and fried. Its presence in a Waldorf book is a reminder that Oscar Tschirky's kitchen served offal as a matter of course: tripe, kidneys, brains and sweetbreads all appear here, cooked with the same care as the sole. The marinade also does practical work, since long-boiled tripe is bland and faintly gelatinous, and two hours in acid and aromatics is what gives it something to taste of before the breadcrumbs go on.