Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (107 page)

Cooking methods.
Braise the tongues whole, or cut in half lengthwise, following the beef-tongue recipes and
variations
. Braising time will be about 1½ hours.

PORK TONGUES

Weights and measures.
Pork tongues weigh ¾ to 1 pound, and are 8 to 9 inches long. Count on 1 tongue for each 2 people, or 2 large tongues for 5 people.

Preparation, boiling, peeling, and cooking methods.
Follow preceding directions for veal tongues.

LAMB TONGUES

Weights and measures.
3 to 4 ounces each, and 3 to 4 inches long. Count on 2 tongues per person, or 1½ to 2 if the tongues are cut in two lengthwise.

Preparation, boiling, peeling, and cooking methods.
Follow directions for veal tongues, but the final braising will probably be 45 minutes to 1 hour only.

TRIPE

Tripes

Those who love tripe speak of it with passionate enjoyment and will travel miles to dine upon it. Like scrapple and head cheese, it is a rather old-fashioned taste—a fragrant, earthy reminder of the past when every edible morsel of the beast was used. Many people today who have heard of tripe have neither seen nor eaten it, but our forefathers consumed it with relish. The Parker House in Boston became famous throughout the nation for its fried tripe, and the fine Parisian restaurant, Pharamond, in the heart of the old markets, Les Halles, made its reputation serving steaming bowls of
tripes à la mode de Caen,
a recipe you will find in so many cookbooks that we shall not repeat it again here. Instead, we present a much simpler dish from Provence, and one that we like immensely: the tripe first cooks to a golden yellow with onions, then finishes off in an aromatic mixture of tomatoes, wine, and herbs. If you are one of those who has never tried tripe before, yet enjoys new foods and new tastes, we think you will find this a happy introduction.

HOW TO BUY TRIPE

There are four kinds of beef tripe, and any or all may be used in any recipe, but the only one usually available in American markets today is honeycomb tripe (
bonnet,
in French). Although you can buy it canned, frozen, and fully cooked, or pickled, we are interested here only in ready-to-cook tripe. This means that it has been scraped, washed, blanched, often bleached, and is, in fact, ready for cooking. You will probably find it in a sealed plastic bag under refrigeration in the meat section, and it will look like a soft, pale, rubbery pouch with a honeycomb pattern on its surface. It will be labeled “fresh honeycomb tripe”; do not mistake it for pickled tripe, which will look the same but will be labeled “pickled tripe.” Some markets do not carry tripe at all because there is no demand for it; it depends on the eating habits in your shopping area. Fresh tripe is perishable; plan to cook it within a day or two of
buying it.

PRELIMINARIES TO PREPARING READY-TO-COOK AMERICAN TRIPE

Although some cooks do not blanch fresh ready-to-cook tripe, we find that blanching freshens the flavor and we suggest the following
preliminaries to cooking. Wash the tripe thoroughly under cold, running water. Then place it in a large saucepan or kettle, and cover by 3 inches with cold water; bring to
the boil, and boil slowly 5 minutes. Drain, run cold water into the pan, soak the tripe for several minutes, drain, and blanch again for 5 minutes. Repeat the process a third time, and the tripe is ready to cook.

A NOTE ON FRENCH TRIPE AND EUROPEAN-STYLE TRIPE

In France, tripe is bought
chez le tripier,
who sells cleaned and blanched tripe of all four varieties.
Gras double,
a term you will run into in French recipes and at
la triperie
itself, can mean either the heaviest and meatiest of the four,
la panse,
or
gras double
can mean the four varieties rolled together fully cooked, and needing only to be reheated in whatever sauce you plan to use. Ready-to-cook French tripe, on the other hand, should be soaked several hours or overnight in several changes of cold water, then blanched as directed in the preceding paragraph. Some European-style butchers in this country prepare tripe as the French do, and you should treat it in the same way.

Because you will occasionally run into them in French recipes, the technical
names for beef tripe are as follows: First stomach, rumen, or paunch—
panse
or
gras double.
Second stomach, reticulum, or honeycomb tripe—
bonnet.
Third stomach, omasum, psalterium, or manyplies—
feuillet
or
franche mule.
Fourth stomach, abomasum, or reed—
caillette
or
millet.

TRIPES À LA NIÇOISE

[Tripe Baked with Onions, Tomatoes, Wine, and Provençal Seasonings]

As an alternate to
tripes à la mode de Caen
, we find this a wonderfully satisfying recipe. The tripe is cooked several hours just with onions; then tomatoes, other flavorings, and wine go in for another session of slow, penetrating simmer. You could, if you wished, finish off the recipe in another way after the onion-cooking session, or pick the tripe out of its tomato sauce at the end of the recipe here, broil or deep-fry it, and serve the tomato sauce on the side. We shall leave these possibilities up to you, and present the recipe in its own straightforward way. Serve boiled rice or boiled potatoes with the tripe. No green vegetable is needed, but a salad could follow. For wines, we suggest a strong, dry white like a Mâcon or Hermitage, or a young red like Beaujolais, or a strong, dry rosé like Tavel.

For 6 people

1)
Preliminary cooking of tripe and onions—2 to 2½ hours

Optional, for additional flavor: 4 or 5 slices, ¼ inch thick, of fat-and-lean
fresh pork belly or blanched bacon

½ cup olive oil

A heavy, 4- to 5-quart covered casserole (earthenware preferred for looks, and for heat-holding properties)

4 cups sliced onions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut optional pork or bacon into 2-inch lengths. Cook slowly without browning
in the oil for 5 minutes to render some of the fat. Then stir in the onions, cover the casserole, and cook onions slowly 10 minutes or more, stirring frequently, until tender but not at all browned.

2½ to 3 lbs. ready-to-cook tripe (see notes preceding recipe)

Heavy shears

1 tsp salt

A round of waxed paper

A piece of aluminum foil

While onions are cooking, cut tripe into strips 2 inches wide; cut the strips into triangles about 3 inches on the long side. When onions are ready, fold the tripe into them, along with the salt. Lay a round of waxed paper over tripe to keep it from browning, drape foil over top of casserole to keep in the steam, and place casserole cover on top of foil. Set in middle level of preheated oven, and bake slowly for 2½ hours, regulating thermostat so that tripe cooks very slowly and steadily but does not brown. When time is up, tripe will be a golden yellow.

2)
Finishing the cooking, and serving—2 to 2½ hours

2 cups fresh tomato pulp (6 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and chopped), or a combination of fresh pulp and canned, drained, sieved Italian plum tomatoes

4 large cloves garlic, mashed or minced

1 cup dry white wine, or dry white French vermouth

To thicken cooking liquid: an 8-inch square of blanched pork rind (Volume I, page 401) and/or 1 to 2 cups chopped veal knuckle bones tied in washed cheesecloth

The following tied in washed cheesecloth:

6 peppercorns

6 allspice berries

1 tsp fennel seeds

A 3-inch piece of dried orange peel, or 1 tsp bottled peel

1 tsp thyme

1 imported bay leaf

1 to 2 cups veal stock, or beef stock or bouillon

Salt as needed

Optional, to be added last ½ hour of cooking: ½ cup
black, Mediterranean-type olives
, pitted, and blanched 10 minutes

Fold the tomatoes and garlic into the tripe; pour in the wine. Bury the pork rind and bones in the tripe, and the packet of seasonings. (Remove these later, when tripe is done.) Pour in enough stock just to cover ingredients. Bring to simmer on top of stove, and salt lightly to taste. Cover tripe again with the waxed paper, foil, and casserole cover, and return to oven for another 2 hours of slow simmering. Test tripe by eating a piece; it should be tender enough to chew easily, but should still have some texture. Skim off surface fat; carefully correct seasoning. Bake half an hour, an hour, or longer, until tripe is of the desired consistency. (Add a little more white wine or stock if liquid has evaporated too much. Stir in optional olives about half an hour before estimated end of cooking.)