Tripe Soup

Tripe soup is a traditional dish in Balkan and Bulgarian cuisine. It is traditionally made from veal or lamb/kid tripe and seasoned with garlic vinegar and hot pepper.

In addition to beef, veal, sheep, lamb, or goat, tripe soup can also be made from pork stomach. Although many people dislike it, I like pork tripe soup, but pork tripe is a little more specific to prepare, so I will leave additional notes on how to cook it.

Ingredients needed to make tripe soup:

• 1 kg tripe (beef, lamb, or pork)
• 0.5-1 liter fresh milk
• 1-2 teaspoons red pepper
• 30 grams butter (or lard if you are cooking pork tripe)
• Salt to taste
• Vinegar, garlic, and coarsely ground hot red pepper (chili)

Preparation:

Place the beef or lamb tripe in a pot, add water to cover the tripe, as well as a few pinches of salt (to taste) and cook until well done. How long it takes to cook depends on the age of the animal from which the tripe was taken. Check after an hour or two to see if it is cooked and boil for longer if necessary.

A convenient option is to buy ready-cooked tripe, but this means you miss out on the delicious broth you get from boiling it, which is rich in type 1 and 3 collagen.  (If you are cooking pork tripe, remove it shortly after it boils and turns white, remove the bitter layer, discard the water, and put it back to cook in clean water so that the soup is not bitter).

Once you have cooked the tripe thoroughly, remove it from the broth and chop it finely. Decide how much broth to leave and how much milk to add. Personally, for 1 kg of tripe, I leave about ½ liter of broth and add half a liter of milk. Some people leave almost no broth and add a whole liter of milk - it's a matter of taste.

After adding the milk, bring it to a boil again (especially if the milk is not pasteurized). On a neighboring burner, or if you are using only one, pull the pot aside briefly and place a frying pan on the burner. Heat the oil in it, lifting the pan if necessary to prevent the oil from burning, and add 1-2 tablespoons of red pepper, stirring well. Once the red pepper is lightly fried in the oil, immediately add some of the broth to dilute it and prevent the pepper from burning. Pour the contents of the pan back into the pot with the tripe and stir well.

Voila! You have a delicious tripe soup.

Serve in a bowl and season with crushed garlic marinated in vinegar and coarsely ground hot red pepper (chili).

Note: There is one thing you will not see in this recipe, and that is flour! I cannot stand tripe soup being spoiled with flour!