Tripe and Onions

                                                                                 

In these times of economic hardship when every penny has to be made to count, maybe we should look to the past. To those war and post war years when rationing was in force and mothers conjured nutritious and filling meals from inexpensive ingredients.

At one time all butchers sold tripe, in fact there were even shops and stalls that sold nothing but tripe. Unfortunately as incomes increased we forgot about the tripe that we enjoyed in our youth and began to eat meals containing more expensive cuts of meat. As a consequence tripe shops and stalls died out and as demand fell butchers ceased to sell tripe. However the good news is that our local butcher is once again selling tripe.

So why don’t you give tripe a try, I think you might like it. Besides as they say, “You’ll never know if you do, until you try it”.

Fred Watson.

2 lb of honeycomb tripe

3 onions

1 ˝ pints of milk

1 oz of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

1 level teaspoon of mustard

Method

Wash the Tripe and cut into pieces approximately 3inch by 3inch

Place in a large sauce pan and cover with water

Bring to the boil and cook gently for 20 minutes

Then discard the water

Peel and chop the onions

Place in the pan with the tripe

And add the milk, put the lid on the pan

And cook on a low heat for about an hour, until tender.

When the tripe is tender make the sauce.

Melt the butter in another saucepan

Add the flour and the mustard

Stir into a paste and then using a ladle

Transfer half of the milk from tripe pan

and stir into the paste.

When done, pour the sauce in with tripe

And reheat for about 10 minutes,

stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.