Tripes à la Mode de Caen

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •6-quart (5.5-liter) heavy cocotte or Dutch oven with a close-fitting lid
• •Large bowl for soaking
• •Butcher’s twine
• •Rolling pin
• •Slotted spoon
• •Fine sieve and fat separator
• •Ovenproof stoneware or earthenware serving bowls

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak and prepare

   Put the prepared tripe in a large bowl of cold water and soak it for 1 hour, changing the water once. Rinse well, drain, and cut it into squares about 2 inches across. Rinse the ox-foot pieces, checking that no loose bone fragments remain. Drain the soaked suet separately. Prepared tripe needs refreshing, not aggressive bleaching at home; a clean, mild animal scent is right, while a harsh ammonia smell means the tripe should be returned to the seller.

   Ask the butcher to split and cross-cut the ox foot. A home knife is the wrong tool for dense beef bone, and wrestling with it adds no merit to dinner.
2. 2

   Build the aromatic bed

   Set a rack in the lower middle of the oven and heat it to 300°F (150°C). Stud each onion half with one clove. Tie the leek, parsley stems, thyme, and bay leaf firmly with butcher’s twine to make the herb faggot. Spread the carrots and onions across the bottom of a snug 6-quart cocotte, then arrange the meatiest ox-foot pieces over them.

3. 3

   Layer the pot

   Season the drained tripe evenly with the salt and pepper, then pack it over the ox foot without crushing it tight. Bury the herb bundle in the middle. Lay any long, especially bony foot pieces across the top, followed by the soaked slices of suet. Stir the cider and Calvados together and pour them slowly down the side until the tripe is just covered. The exact depth depends on the pot, which is why the cocotte must fit closely; the contents should be covered, not swimming in a broad pan.

4. 4

   Seal with galette

   Mix the flour with 1 cup of the hot water, adding only enough of the remaining water to make a stiff, plain dough. Pat or roll it into a galette, a flour-and-water paste lid, about ½ inch thick and slightly wider than the inside of the pot. Lay it over the contents and press its edge firmly against the inner wall just below the lid seat, leaving the outer rim clear for the cocotte lid later. If the galette tears, press a scrap of dough over the opening and seal it with wet fingers. Ça se rattrape. No gap should remain for rapid evaporation.

   The galette is a working seal and will be discarded. Keep it thick and stiff; tender pastry would be wasted here and would not protect the braise as reliably.
5. 5

   Recreate the waning oven

   Put the cocotte in the oven without its metal lid and bake for 2 hours, until the galette has set into a firm shell. Do not pierce or lift it. Set the cocotte lid over the baked galette, reduce the oven to 250°F (120°C), and cook for 8 hours more. This descending heat is the home equivalent of the baker’s steadily waning oven. The suet and paste protect the tripe from drying and excessive colour while the ox foot slowly gives its gelatin to the cider.

6. 6

   Test and rescue

   After 10 hours of total cooking, lift off the metal lid and crack the galette from the far edge, keeping your face and hands back from the sudden heat beneath it. Test several kinds of tripe. Each should yield readily to the edge of a spoon without dissolving, and the edible skin and tendons around the ox foot should be soft and gelatinous. If the tripe is still rubbery, it is undercooked, not ruined. Remove the galette, add a little hot cider if the liquid has fallen below the tripe, cover with the metal lid, and return the pot to 250°F (120°C) for 1 to 2 hours.

7. 7

   Clarify the gravy

   Discard the galette, bare bones, suet, carrots, onions, and herb bundle. Lift the tripe and the softened edible pieces of ox foot into a warm bowl, distributing the different tripe textures evenly. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan and remove the fat thoroughly with a separator or careful skimming. The gravy should be glossy and lightly cling to a spoon. If it is watery, simmer it uncovered until it gains body; if it has become too concentrated, loosen it with a splash of cider. Do not add flour. Taste only after reduction, then correct the salt and pepper.

8. 8

   Serve fiercely hot

   Divide the tripe among warmed stoneware or earthenware bowls and ladle the clear gravy over it. If the table is not ready, keep the filled bowls in a bain-marie, a hot-water bath held below a boil, for no more than 45 minutes. This dish loses its generosity when served merely warm, so bring it to the table with the gravy gleaming and the bowls properly hot. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ox foot is not interchangeable with calf’s foot in this braise. Calf’s foot softens too early and supplies too little gelatin for the full pot. If ox foot requires an extra visit to a butcher or a well-stocked meat market, make the visit; this is the ingredient that decides the gravy.
• •Buy tripe already cleaned and prepared, but seek a mixture of textures rather than honeycomb alone. Paunch is broad and smooth, honeycomb catches the gravy, manyplies brings fine folds, and reed is tenderer. Their contrast is part of the traditional bowl.
• •Choose a dry, pale cider without caramel colouring or added spice. Calvados is the direct Norman answer to the source formula’s brandy or liqueur-cider, and it should smell cleanly of apple rather than added sweetness.
• •Do not brown the tripe or vegetables. This gravy is built on gelatin, cider, and protected cooking, not a dark fond. Pale does not mean weak; the ox foot provides all the structure the pot needs.
• •Serve the same dry cider at the table. The dish is rich with gelatin and beef, and cider’s acidity clears the palate without pulling Normandy out of its own register.

Advance Preparation

• •The tripe can be soaked, cut, and refrigerated in a covered container one day ahead. Prepare the aromatics separately, but mix the galette dough only when the pot is ready to enter the oven.
• •Tripes à la mode de Caen is excellent made one or two days ahead. After cooking, remove the bones and aromatics, strain and degrease the gravy, then chill the tripe and gravy together in shallow covered containers within 2 hours. The gravy will set firmly from the ox-foot gelatin; that is proof of success, not a fault.
• •Reheat the tripe and set gravy together in a covered earthenware dish at 300°F (150°C) until thoroughly hot, usually 40 to 50 minutes. If the gravy remains too tight once hot, loosen it with a small splash of cider.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 475g)