What Is Beef Tripe? The Humble Cut Behind the World's Great Soups

Ask a cook in Mexico City, Hanoi, Rome or Tunis about tripe, and you will probably hear about a grandmother, a holiday morning and a pot that simmered for hours. Ask most Americans, and you may get a wrinkled nose.

That gap is the reason for this guide. Beef tripe is mild, high in protein and easier to cook than its reputation suggests, and it is the backbone of some of the best-loved soups and stews on earth. It just asks for a little time.

At Aaron's Gourmet, we offer Beef Tripe from pasture-raised, grass-fed cattle and delicate Veal Tripe, both Glatt Kosher and cut fresh to order by our butchers. Here is everything you need to know: what tripe is, the different types, where it comes from, whether it is kosher and how to cook it at home.

What Is Beef Tripe?

Beef tripe, also called cow tripe, is the edible lining of a cow's stomach. Sheep and goats give tripe too, but beef tripe is by far the most common in the United States, so when a recipe simply says "tripe," it almost always means beef. In Britain you will often see it sold as ox tripe. The Wikipedia entry on tripe is a good reference if you want the full anatomy.

A cow has four stomach chambers, and each one gives a different kind of tripe:

Honeycomb tripe is the one most cooks picture, and it is what we sell as our Beef Tripe. Its little pockets trap broth and sauce, and it turns tender with a pleasant chew.

Veal tripe comes from calves. It is paler, thinner and milder than beef tripe and cooks in less time, which makes it a good place to start if you are new to tripe.

Cleaned, bleached or green? Tripe sold for cooking has been cleaned and scalded, and supermarket tripe is often bleached bright white as well. "Green" tripe is the unwashed stomach. It is grayish green, smells strong and is sold mostly as dog food, not for your kitchen.

What Does Tripe Taste Like?

Milder than you probably expect. Well-cleaned tripe tastes clean and lightly beefy, and it soaks up whatever it is cooked with: red chile broth, tomato and mint, garlic and cumin, or ginger and scallion.

The real draw is texture. After a long, gentle simmer, honeycomb tripe turns soft with a little spring to it, and every pocket holds onto the sauce. If tripe ever tastes strong, it was either poorly cleaned or not cooked long enough. A quick blanch before the long simmer (see below) takes care of most of it.

A Short History of Tripe

Tripe has been on the table for as long as people have raised cattle. Because it was inexpensive and asked for time rather than money, it became the food of working families. Because it tasted wonderful, it became a delicacy too. A few stops on its long journey:

Medieval Spain. In The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden describes a 13th-century stew from Andalusia, made with tripe, intestines and sheep's feet and head, that was sold at the market for the Sabbath.

Caen, France. Local legend credits Sidoine Benoît, a 14th-century Benedictine monk, with tripes à la mode de Caen: tripe and cattle feet sealed in an earthenware pot with cider, Calvados and vegetables, then baked for as long as 15 hours. A guild called La Tripière d'Or still holds a yearly contest to crown the best version.

Porto, Portugal. People from Porto are nicknamed tripeiros, the tripe eaters. The city's favorite legend says that in 1415 its people gave their best meat to the fleet sailing to capture Ceuta and kept only the offal for themselves. Tripas à moda do Porto, tripe with white beans, has been the local dish ever since.

Florence and Rome. Florence's street carts still sell lampredotto, tripe from the fourth stomach simmered in broth and piled into a crusty roll. In Rome, trattorias kept an old weekly rhythm: giovedì gnocchi, venerdì pesce, sabato trippa. Thursday gnocchi, Friday fish, Saturday tripe.

Philadelphia. Philadelphia pepper pot, a peppery tripe soup, comes with a famous legend: that a cook created it to feed George Washington's army during the hard winter at Valley Forge in 1777. Historians doubt the story and trace the soup's roots to the Caribbean, but pepper pot was sold on Philadelphia's streets for generations, and the painter John Lewis Krimmel pictured a pepper pot seller in 1811.

Mexico. Menudo, a red chile soup of tripe and hominy, is a New Year's Day tradition in many Mexican and Mexican-American homes, where it is also famous as a hangover cure.

Is Tripe Kosher?

Yes. Tripe from a kosher animal is kosher when the animal is slaughtered and inspected under kosher supervision and the forbidden fats, called chelev, are removed. Several of those fats sit on and around the stomach, so they have to be taken off by a trained specialist, a process called nikkur.

That extra skilled work is one reason kosher tripe is hard to find. All of our meat is Glatt Kosher, including our Beef Tripe and Veal Tripe.

One note for kosher kitchens: a few famous tripe recipes finish with cheese, such as Roman trippa with pecorino, or cook the tripe in milk, such as English tripe and onions. Kosher law keeps meat and dairy apart, so every recipe in this guide is meat-only.

Tripe in Jewish Cooking

Organ meats have deep roots in Jewish kitchens. They were cheap enough for the poorest families and special enough for Shabbat and holidays. Claudia Roden writes that North African Jews especially loved tongue, spleen and tripe.

The best-known example is akod (also spelled aakode), a slow-cooked Tunisian Jewish stew of tripe with cumin, garlic, harissa and tomato paste. Ashkenazi cooks leaned on other parts of the animal: kishke, beef intestine filled with a savory stuffing and often cooked in Shabbat cholent, and p'tcha, jellied calves' feet.

Tripe Around the World

Nearly every food culture that raises cattle has a beloved tripe dish. A few of the best known:

• Menudo (Mexico): red chile soup with tripe, hominy and often beef feet.
• Phở with sách (Vietnam): beef noodle soup topped with thin slices of book tripe.
• Dim sum tripe (southern China): honeycomb or book tripe steamed with ginger and scallion.
• Kare-kare (Philippines): oxtail and tripe in a rich peanut sauce.
• Callos a la madrileña (Spain): a paprika-red tripe stew and a Madrid winter classic.
• Tripas à moda do Porto (Portugal): tripe with white beans.
• Trippa alla romana (Italy): tripe in tomato sauce with fresh mint.
• Tripes à la mode de Caen (France): tripe baked for hours with cider and Calvados.
• İşkembe çorbası (Turkey): a garlicky tripe soup and a famous late-night favorite.
• Flaki (Poland): tripe soup seasoned with marjoram.
• Mondongo (Caribbean and Latin America): a hearty tripe and vegetable soup.
• Akod (Tunisia): a Jewish tripe stew with cumin, harissa and tomato.
• Pepper pot (Philadelphia): a peppery tripe soup with roots in the Caribbean.

Is Beef Tripe Healthy?

Tripe is lean and high in protein. Here is what 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) of simmered beef tripe provides, according to USDA FoodData Central (FDC ID 174769):

Tripe is also high in cholesterol, so if you are watching yours, enjoy it as part of a balanced diet.

Where to Buy Beef Tripe

Most supermarkets carry tripe only now and then, usually frozen and bleached, with little said about where it came from. Latin American and Asian markets are better bets, and a good butcher is best, because how tripe is cleaned and trimmed decides how it tastes.

Kosher tripe is much harder to find. Because of the extra work it requires, few kosher butchers offer it, and fewer still ship it.

At Aaron's Gourmet, our Beef Tripe is honeycomb tripe from pasture-raised, grass-fed cattle, cleaned and trimmed by our butchers. Each pack weighs about 3.5 pounds, plenty for a big pot of menudo or stew. Our Veal Tripe comes in packs of about 2.25 pounds. Both are Glatt Kosher and cut fresh after you order, so final weights may vary slightly.

We offer nationwide shipping as well as local pickup from our shop in Rego Park, New York. Making menudo? Add our Steer Feet, which give the broth its traditional body.

Shop Our Beef Tripe →

How to Clean and Prepare Tripe

Tripe from a butcher comes cleaned, but a few minutes of prep gives you a cleaner flavor and a better texture:

1. Rinse. Rinse the tripe under cold water, rubbing the honeycomb side with your fingers. Some cooks scrub it with coarse salt and a splash of vinegar, then rinse again.
2. Trim. Cut away any loose bits of fat.
3. Blanch. Cover the tripe with cold water, bring it to a boil, boil for 5 minutes, then drain and rinse.
4. Cut. Slice it into strips or 1-inch squares. Many cooks find it easier to cut after the long simmer.

How to Cook Beef Tripe at Home

Tripe needs time, not technique. Simmer beef tripe gently for 2 to 3 hours, sometimes longer, and start checking at 90 minutes. Veal tripe usually needs 1 to 1½ hours. A pressure cooker gets beef tripe tender in about 45 to 60 minutes at high pressure. It is ready when a fork slides in easily and it still has a gentle chew.

The simplest base: cover blanched tripe with water, add an onion, a few garlic cloves, two bay leaves, a teaspoon of peppercorns and some salt, and simmer until tender. From there it can go into almost any sauce or soup. Or make the classic:

Menudo-Style Red Chile Tripe Soup

Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients

• 1 pack Beef Tripe (about 3.5 pounds), rinsed and blanched
• 1 pack Steer Feet (about 3 pounds), optional but traditional
• 1 large white onion, halved
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 2 dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 1 can (about 29 ounces) white hominy, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano, plus more for serving
• Kosher salt
• To serve: finely chopped onion, lime wedges, crushed red chile and warm corn tortillas

Instructions

Step 1: Simmer the tripe. Cut the tripe into 1-inch pieces. Put it in a large pot with the steer feet, half the onion, 4 garlic cloves, the bay leaves and 1 tablespoon of salt. Cover with water by 2 inches, bring to a boil and skim off any foam. Lower the heat and simmer gently, partly covered, for 2½ to 3 hours, until the tripe is tender.

Step 2: Make the chile sauce. While the tripe simmers, toast the chiles in a dry skillet for 20 to 30 seconds per side, until fragrant. Soak them in hot water for 20 minutes, then blend with the remaining onion, the remaining 2 garlic cloves and 1 cup of the soaking water until smooth. Strain the sauce into a bowl.

Step 3: Bring it together. Take out the steer feet, the onion and the bay leaves. Pull any meat from the feet and return it to the pot if you like. Stir in the chile sauce, hominy and oregano, and simmer 30 minutes more. Season with salt.

Step 4: Serve. Ladle into deep bowls and set out onion, lime, oregano and chile so everyone can finish their own bowl.

Make ahead: menudo tastes even better the next day, and it freezes well for up to 3 months.

Make It Your Own

Once you have a pot of tender, simmered tripe, it can travel almost anywhere:

• Roman-style: simmer strips of cooked tripe in a garlicky tomato sauce for 30 minutes and finish with fresh mint and good olive oil.
• Tunisian-style akod: warm garlic, cumin, paprika and harissa in olive oil, stir in tomato paste, then add the tripe with a little of its broth and simmer until thick. Serve with crusty bread.
• Pho night: slice cooked tripe paper-thin and add it to bowls of beef pho. For a shortcut broth, start with our Beef Bone Broth.
• Philadelphia pepper pot: simmer cooked tripe with diced potato, onion, celery and thyme in beef broth, and season with plenty of cracked black pepper.
• Kare-kare: pair tripe with our Oxtails in a rich peanut sauce.

Frequently Asked Questions About Beef Tripe

What part of the cow is tripe?

Tripe is the lining of a cow's stomach. Blanket tripe comes from the first chamber (the rumen), honeycomb tripe from the second (the reticulum), book tripe from the third (the omasum) and reed tripe from the fourth (the abomasum).

Is tripe meat?

Yes. Tripe is the muscular wall of the stomach, so it is meat, and a kosher kitchen treats it as meat. That is why kosher tripe dishes are never cooked with milk or cheese.

What is the difference between honeycomb tripe and blanket tripe?

Honeycomb tripe has a raised, net-like surface, a more tender bite and pockets that hold sauce. Blanket tripe is flatter and smoother, with a firmer chew. Honeycomb is the most popular choice for soups like menudo.

What is bible tripe?

Bible tripe, also called book or leaf tripe, comes from the third stomach. Its thin folds look like the pages of a book, which is how it got its name. It is a favorite in pho and hot pot.

How long does tripe take to cook?

Beef tripe needs 2 to 3 hours of gentle simmering, sometimes longer, until it is fork-tender. Veal tripe needs about 1 to 1½ hours. A pressure cooker cuts beef tripe to about 45 to 60 minutes.

Do you have to clean tripe before cooking it?

Tripe from a butcher arrives cleaned, but you should still rinse it and blanch it in boiling water for 5 minutes before the long simmer. It gives a cleaner flavor.

Is tripe kosher?

Yes, when it comes from a kosher animal slaughtered under kosher supervision and the forbidden fats (chelev) are removed by a trained specialist. All of the meat at Aaron's Gourmet is Glatt Kosher, including our beef tripe and veal tripe.

Is kishke the same as tripe?

No. Tripe is stomach lining. Kishke, also called stuffed derma, is traditionally beef intestine filled with a seasoned stuffing and baked or cooked in cholent.

What is the difference between beef tripe and veal tripe?

Veal tripe comes from calves, so it is paler, thinner, milder and more tender than beef tripe, and it cooks faster.

What is tripe called in Spanish and other languages?

In Spanish, tripe is mondongo in much of Latin America, pancita in Mexico and callos in Spain, while menudo is the name of the Mexican soup. It is trippa in Italian, tripes or gras-double in French, dobrada or tripas in Portuguese, Kutteln in German, flaki in Polish, işkembe in Turkish, niú dǔ (牛肚) in Chinese and tuwalya in Filipino.

Is beef tripe healthy?

Beef tripe is lean and high in protein. According to USDA data, 100 grams of simmered tripe has about 94 calories and 12 grams of protein, plus selenium, zinc and vitamin B12. It is also high in cholesterol.

Can you freeze tripe?

Yes. For the best quality, freeze raw tripe for up to 3 to 4 months and cooked tripe dishes for 2 to 3 months, then thaw them in the refrigerator.

Where can I buy kosher tripe?

Aaron's Gourmet sells Glatt Kosher beef tripe and veal tripe, cut fresh to order, with nationwide shipping and local pickup in Rego Park, Queens.

A Cut Worth Knowing

Tripe asks for patience and gives a lot back: a pot of soup that feeds a crowd, a link to cooks across centuries and continents, and a texture nothing else quite matches. If you grew up with menudo, pho or your grandmother's tripe stew, you already know. If you have never tried it, a bowl of menudo or a simple tomato braise is the easiest way in.

At Aaron's Gourmet, we have been preparing specialty cuts for over 30 years. Our tripe is cleaned and trimmed by our butchers and cut fresh after you order, the same way we would prepare it for our own family.

Curious about other cuts most shops skip? Read our guide to airline chicken, the chef's cut you should be cooking.

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Order Our Veal Tripe →

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Aaron's Gourmet is a chef-owned butcher and kitchen based in Rego Park, New York, delivering premium organic and specialty kosher meats nationwide since 1995. Learn more about our story.