Preparing Tripe for Cooking

How to prepare and store tripe.

This is usually bought ready prepared, but as instances may occur when the cook may have to clean it, the following instructions may be useful: Wash the stomach well as soon as it is taken from the bullock, changing the water several times; dust the dark inside coat with quicklime, and scrape it at once. Cut it up into four parts, dip them into boiling water, and scrape them until they become perfectly white. Put them into a bowl with a weak brine thickened with meal, and allow them to remain for a day. Scrape and soak them in this way for seven or eight days, then put them into a saucepan with oatmeal gruel to cover, and boil it until tender. The tripe should be tied up in a cloth. Turn it out of the cloth, place it in a bowl of weak brine, let it remain for a day or so, and it is then ready for use. Or put the pieces of the stomach of a fat bullock, one at a time, in a saucepan of water, and warm them; remove, scrape well, put them into a bowl of slightly salted water, wash them well, change the water daily, and allow them to soak for five or six days, by which time they should be quite white. Place them in a saucepan of water and boil them; if not required for immediate use, keep them in vinegar.