Menudo: Giving Tripe Another Try
Menudo is a traditional Mexican tripe soup that is very popular down here in Laredo Texas. In fact, Laredo even hosts a Menudo Bowl, which is a Menudo cook-off that takes place each year a couple of weeks prior to the Super Bowl. We’ve enjoyed tripe numerous times in restaurants, etc… but our previous attempt at cooking the stuff (over a year ago) left a bad taste in our mouths, but we decided it was finally time to give tripe another shot this past weekend. Helping to encourage us was knowing that Menudo also involved another cow part we’ve been wanting to try, beef feet!
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I admit I never wanted to know what tripe was…cuz I LOVE it. I love it with hot chili and black beans…and love menudo. Scared to try cooking it myself. Did you like it this time around?
This is awesome. I’ve always been intimidated by tripe. I think it’s even cooler that you guys used cow’s feet : P Thanks for sharing!
u know, u guys are lucky u both like offal. I LOVE feet, and intestines and eyeballs…etc..and my hubby won’t come near a medium rare steak. if its not burnt (ie all blood is gone) he won’t eat it.
ive never had tripe in “soup” format, but it looks really good. escpecially the feet. one thing i have found is adding vinegar and garlic to offal broth and drinking it is amazing. i will try the jalepenos next.
That gelatinous stuff from the cow’s feet looked yummy.
I would be very, very reluctant to eat Menudo. It’s silly that I eat beef happily but only certain parts of beef, that’s not right, is it?
Anyway, inspired by the two of you, I made red…sauce the other day. We had a bag of dried chipotle peppers and I followed the recipe on the tag, water, ketchup, vinegar, onion, peppers, and boiled it for a while and it smelled so good, smoky and amazing. I haven’t had a chance to actually eat any yet, but I just wanted to say thanks for making me cook outside my normal comfort zone!
Congrats! very well done
that’s how we eat it here in Mexico!
I don’t even knew how to cook it, my grandma always do it hahaha
I have one of those lime / lemon squeezers and use it all the time. Next time, try putting the lime in with the cut side facing up, not down. You’ll be amazed! LOL
We use our citrus squeezer everyday, cut side down definitely works much better in my opinion. That way the lime basically gets turned inside out and the juice goes straight through the holes in the bottom instead of wasting juice as it squirts out the top sides. Especially noticeable if you try to slowly squeeze out just a teaspoon or similar, the cut side up way makes that very messy and difficult.
I think your lime was upside down lol
This menudo looks bland. MORE CHILI POWDER
Well it didn’t taste bland, it was quite spicy and very flavourful. We tend not to really use any chili powder in our cooking, except for rubs when grilling and that sort of thing.
I love menudo. dont know how to cook it but my mom sure does. It’s been a tradition in my family to have menudo every sunday morning. Funny thing i dont like tripe and wont eat it but love the taste of menudo soup. I have the soup with the hominy, add cut up torillas, avocado, cilantro and lime juice (very good).
I’m probably one of the most daring eaters I know and to this day I can’t come to the point where I would eat anything made from tripe. Just doesn’t sound good at all. And this comes from a person who’s had iguana, squirrel, possum and armadillo, to name a few weird choices.
maybe one day soon.
happy cooking
chris…
If you think that the tripe that you cooked the first time stunk……try pulling it straight out of the cow. I unloaded about 150 lbs of mostly digested alfalfa, then scrubbed a bunch of hideous green stuff off of it. The smell is so strong that it gets into your skin and you can taste it in your mouth! I had two pots on the stove…. one with fish stock and the tripe in the other. My husband walked in the house and said “WHAT THE HECK DO YOU HAVE GOING ON? IT SMELLS LIKE FISH AND SHIT IN HERE!” LMAO… I’ll let you know how it all turns out.
haha, that’d definitely be tough to deal with. Even though this time worked out nicely for us, I still think will be limiting our tripe cooking to maybe a couple of times a year
I told you that I would let you know how the menudo turned out. At the last minute my husband and I ran into town to pick up some tortillas. On the way home he said “well, I sure hope your manure soup turns out good”. I got a good laugh out of that because the whole house smelled horrid all night while it was simmering.
When it was time to eat, my 19 yr old son got this nasty old look on his face when he took the lid off the pot, because there was one time I made duck soup. He asked me if I had put “anything weird in it…like brains or heads or feet”. I lied to him, hoping that he wouldn’t find any of that stuff. Well, he did…. a duck bill. Now he scrutinizes everything I make, can’t say as I blame him.
Anyway, we all sat down said grace and dug in… OMG!!! IT WAS SO GOOD! everyone went back for seconds. I write this to you with a miserably full stomach. It was well worth the effort, but I agree with you….a couple of times a year will do just fine.
Your menudo recipe actually looks much better than mine, I cannot wait to try it your way…I am not allowed to cook any strange recipes in the kitchen, because of the smell …, also pigs feet are as good as the cows feet in the menudo, something about the fat and the gristle… yum