My mother has a fondness of a great many culinary rarities: liver, sweetbreads, spinach and , yes, tripe. As a child of the depression, these were foods that were very familiar to her on the farm in which she grew up and for her 80th birthday, she asked me to ‘cook some up’ for her.
So before you turn your nose up, remember that you have had far more interesting things in that hot dog you so enjoyed… and some of that probably contained tripe! However, to be fair, the expression ‘that was the worst kind of tripe’ is well deserved because so many people do not know how to prepare it properly… especially in this century. The father of Greek Poetry and William the Conqueror both praised the dishes that eventually became “Tripe a la mode de Caen” ( read Laurousse Gastronomique 1961 or original French edition 1938)… and these dishes were featured in both Escoffier’s “A guide to Modern Cookery” (1907) and the American classic “Epicurean.” If it is made anywhere today, it is made very differently and hence the problem.
I am still sifting through the various debates of this famous Norman dish, but several things are clear. First, traditionally this meal is cooked in a hermetically sealed container to prevent any of the vapors from escaping, I think a modern pressure cooker will substitute. Secondly, I found a reference to the fact that the best animals to be used were those in the fall. Why? The reason is that they had been feeding on fallen apples and the traces remained in the flesh… which I think is why cider and Calvados (apple brandy) is called for in some recipes. So the search goes on.
Next, another forgotten art is the making of cider. And since I have many many apples, we’re going to brew some up!
Lastly, the art of home distillation is intriguing. It is important to know, that unless you live in New Zealand… this is still illegal in America…. but worth reading.
So, what was once old and forgotten tastes and techniques are making a resurgence.
Roger Freberg
