Menudo Blanco Sonorense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 10-quart stockpot or olla de peltre (enameled tin pot)
• •Long-handled spoon or skimmer for foam
• •Heavy tongs for handling the pata
• •Enameled tin bowls or thick clay cazuelas for serving
• •Small glass jar for the chiltepin at the table

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the tripe properly

   Even tripe sold as cleaned needs another wash. Rinse the panza under cold running water, rubbing it with coarse salt and a squeeze of lime. Trim away any dark or fatty patches. Cut it into 1 to 2-inch squares. The tripe should smell faintly of the animal, not strongly. If it smells off, send it back. In Hermosillo, the senoras at the carniceria will not sell you menudo tripe that has not been washed three times. Hold yourself to the same standard.

   If your tripe smells assertive, blanch it once. Drop it into a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, drain, rinse, and start fresh. This is a Sonoran trick and nobody will tell you it is a compromise.
2. 2

   Build the broth

   Place the cleaned tripe and the pieces of pata in a large stockpot, at least 10 quarts. Cover with cold water by three inches. Add the halved onion, the halved head of garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cold water draws the flavor out slowly. A rolling boil clouds the broth and this menudo is supposed to be clear.

3. 3

   Skim and simmer

   For the first thirty minutes, skim the gray foam that rises to the top. Be patient. This is the work that gives you a clean broth instead of a muddy one. Once the foam stops rising, lower the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for four to five hours. The tripe should be tender enough to bite through cleanly but still hold a little chew. The pata releases collagen that thickens the broth and gives menudo blanco its silky body. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

4. 4

   Pull the pata and pick the meat

   After about four hours, lift the pata pieces out with tongs. Let them cool until you can handle them. Peel the soft meat and skin away from the bones, discard the bones, and chop the meat coarsely. Return it to the pot. The bones have given everything they have. The meat is now part of the menudo.

5. 5

   Add hominy and finish

   Stir in the drained hominy and the minced garlic. Simmer 30 more minutes, partially covered. Taste for salt now. The hominy absorbs flavor as it sits, so the broth needs to be assertive. The pot should look pale gold, almost ivory, with kernels of hominy and pieces of tripe floating in a clear, glossy broth. There is no chile in the pot. The chiltepin goes on at the table.

   If you find dried hominy and a few extra hours, cook it from scratch with cal. The texture is firmer and the corn flavor is stronger. Canned hominy is a compromise, not an upgrade.
6. 6

   Set the table sonorense

   Crumble dried oregano between your palms over the pot to wake it up. Ladle the menudo into deep enameled tin bowls or thick clay cazuelas. Set the chiltepin in a small jar in the middle of the table along with diced white onion, lime wedges, more oregano, and a basket of warm flour tortillas sobaqueras. Each diner builds their bowl. The chiltepin is crushed between the fingers directly into the broth. One or two for most people. Three if you grew up in Sonora. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Honeycomb tripe is the only tripe for menudo. Book tripe and other cuts cook differently and the texture is wrong. Ask your butcher for panza de res, the honeycomb cut, and ask if it has been pre-cleaned. Even pre-cleaned tripe gets another wash from you at home.
• •The pata is non-negotiable. If your butcher does not carry beef foot, find a Mexican carniceria. The pata is what gives menudo blanco its body. Without it, you are making caldo, not menudo.
• •Chiltepin is the small wild chile from the Sierra Madre. Dried, it crushes easily between the fingers. Do not substitute chile pequin or piquin, which is cultivated and tastes flatter. If you cannot find chiltepin, leave the bowl plain and tell your guests you are missing the most important ingredient. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Menudo is better the second day. Make it Saturday for Sunday morning. The tripe relaxes overnight and the broth thickens. This is how every household in Hermosillo does it.

Advance Preparation

• •Menudo blanco is best made one day ahead. The flavor deepens overnight and the broth thickens as the collagen sets and re-melts. Reheat gently over low heat without boiling.
• •It keeps refrigerated for four days. The hominy texture suffers in the freezer, so do not freeze it. If you must freeze something, freeze the broth and tripe before adding the hominy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)