Tripe and onions – you’ll love it, or hate it. It’s a Marmite taste, but plenty of Yorkshire folk still eat this. And once upon a cob-webbed time, most Yorkshire markets had a tripe stall where you could eat a plate of dressed tripe drenched in vinegar and salt.
Tripe is the lining of a cow’s stomach, but don’t let that put you off, as you’ll most likely buy it ‘dressed’, that is, washed, bleached, cooked and ready to rock ‘n roll from the butcher, or even some supermarkets. And being low in calories and high in protein, it’s offally good for you, too.
Eaten with onions, it’s – let’s say – an ‘acquired taste’, but one that’s worth trying, at least (and maybe only) once in your life. Here’s an old Yorkshire recipe, enough for four people.
Ingredients
- 2 lb (900g) dressed tripe
- 1 lb (450g) sliced onions
- 1 oz (28g) butter
- 1 oz (28g) flour
- 300 ml (½ pint) each of milk and water
- 2 tablespoons grated cheese
- Seasoning
Method
- Cut the tripe into bite-size pieces and put in a saucepan with the onions, milk and water
- Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer very gently for 1 hour – or until the tripe is tender
- Mix the butter and flour together and, when all the flour is absorbed by the butter, break into small pieces and put into the tripe, stirring all the time until the liquid thickens
- Transfer the mix to an ovenproof dish and bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes
- Sprinkle cheese over the top and brown this, either in the oven, or under a hot grill.
Source: Theodora Fitzgibbon. A Taste of Yorkshire (1979). p.72. Pan Books, London. ISBN 0330257137.
51 Responses to Tripe and Onions
A traditional Irish dish too. I cook it exactly as suggested here, but without the cheese. I like it with a couple of grilled pork sausages, and fresh sourdough bread with plenty of salted butter on the side.
Some of us older Irish Times readers remember Theodora’s weekly column – she had a tendency to omit the odd ingredient from recipes from time to time.
I was brought up in devon and
My aunt used to make tripe soup regularly for me and it was delicious. She used to put potato wedges and suet dumplings in as well as the onions
My Mother used to make Tripe and onions for us. I’ve never made it but I have to admit that I liked it so will give it a try.
I lived in Blackburn for ten years 1965, to 1975 after being born and brought up in Leicestershire.
At a local butchers in Mandurah Western Australia to my surprise they had some trip! {Danced on the ceiling for a week}
Have cooked in up today and am looking forward to my tea.
Love to Blackburn Lancashire, especially 32 Lancaster Place.
Freda Badger
Lovely! Used to eat tripe as a lad at my grandmas in Sheffield, then growing up in Rotherham – used to get it from the Tripe Shop in Wellgate next to Sugg Sports
Saw some in Morrison’s supermarket today – 28 December 2020, and bought a pack.
I know what one having for tea tomorrow night
Exactly the same – found in Morrison’s after hunting in London for 20y!
On the hob now.
Try the Halal butchers in Stroud Green Road near Finsbury Park, or Dalston Market. They cater for Turkish and Afro Caribbean cooks, and you can always buy fabulous honeycomb tripe here, very cheaply.
Any butcher will get tripe if you ask 👌
I make tripe and onion soup all the time l love it, thank God for Morrison’s It’s the only place round here I can buy it.
I just can’t used to the idea of tripe being wrapped tightly in a plastic wrapper in the supermarket. The only place we can buy tripe is on a market stall in Bury ,Lancs
Use to love Tripe soup when we were at home Mum used to make soup for children and Tripe in white sauce for Dad. Is it possible for you to send me your recipe for your soup as I would love to make some. Thank you liz
I grew up in Sheffield with Grandma and Grandad in Meersbrook. During T’war.
I recall buying tripe from butchers in the bombed church on Valley Road. Great with Salt and Vinegar. Oh how I wish had enough teeth now. 🙂
Also memories of The Shambles in Castle Market. Piklets and oat cakes and little dishes of cockles and whelks again in plenty of salt and vinegar
Thank you for the memory jolt
Hello fellow rotherhamer I last had tripe when I was a kid at my grandmas in Thrybergh. I can recall eating it although unable to remember what it tasted like. Can you have it with Vinegar and black pepper?
Yorkshire dad and grandparents plus Jodie mum and family, although born a Londoner, naturally the North is where most of my tastes come from. Tripe and onions being one , although I was taught to add an oxo to the stock ( try it 👌)Now happily retired in rural Spain . But guess what I’m cooking tonight ? 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
I’m from Essex my mum a cockney,she cooked me tripe as a kid telling me it’s good for you they gives to people in hospital ,i loved it also I’ve ate it raw with vinegar and pepper ,always thought it was a northern thing,anyway nowlive in Spain and haven’t had it 50 years sourced it from my butcher it’s called Callos I’m cooking manana.
I was born in 1943 in Manchester and remember my Mum giving me a meal of raw tripe with vinegar.I live in SW20 9BY and find it very difficult to buy and I have to share a little bit with my dog.
Yorkshire dad and grandparents plus Jodie mum and family, although born a Londoner, naturally the North is where most of my tastes come from. Tripe and onions being one , although I was taught to add an oxo to the stock ( try it 👌)Now happily retired in rural Spain . But guess what I’m cooking tonight ? 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
We used very same shop in Wellgate! Strange that local butchers didn’t sell it. You could buy smooth or seamed and we used to eat it as it was sometimes with salt and vinegar, but mostly as tripe and onions, with lashings of buttered bread and white pepper. One unique item for sale, which I haven’t come across anywhere since was slices of roasted cows’ udder. Dark brown in colour and quite strong in taste. Was quite easy to find tripe in London for the Asian market and my local butcher in Devon, fortunately, has it frozen, as Morrisons seemed to have stopped selling it.
It’s called elder (cows udder) and I used to love it. Not seen it for years now.
My Granddad used to eat Elder from Heys Tripe stall on Dewsbury market.it was decades later that I found out that it was Udder. Heys have gone now but maybe
I can get some next time I’m in ‘Uddersfield. Pun intended!
We had tripe all the time at my Granny’s in Huddersfield. She cooked it with onions. My great aunt (they lived together) preferred elder with vinegar.
My Granddad used to buy Elder from Heyes Tripe stall on Dewsbury market. I never tasted it and didn’t know what it was for years. Roasted Udder. I’d love to try it now but it’s probably been banned!
I spotted it in Morrisons in London too.
Just about to cook it.
Loved it in London as a child in the 50s and 60s. Ordinary butchers used to sell it then.
Also got some about a year ago from the market in Doncaster
My mum would cook it ,under duress, for us. Her understanding was it had no nutritional value Today they claim it is a superfood? Go figure! Hers was with onions in what seemed to be a béchamel sauce. when I was about 12 we visited Manchester and I found a place called UCP cafeterias. Plates of it brimming with flavor and no complaints from mum. I suspect the labor intensive process back in the 50s put her off. Like 12 hrs of simmering etc. Still love it that way but my wife who is South African likes it curried. Ya can’t please all te people all the time!
Finding where to buy tripe can be hard.
My local butcher in Manchester keeps it in the back, but not on display, and he will bring it out to sell it, if asked.
My local butcher a few years ago in Bicester, Oxfordshire, didn’t have any, and blamed EU rules for not being able to sell it. That must be bunkum, because one could buy tripe everywhere throughout the EU countries.
Most Morrisons Super Markets stock it
I made this recently for a 95 year old client who had a yearning for tripe and onions. He ate most of it but said he didn’t like the cheese and where were the onions? It waxed the first time I’d cooked it. I was expecting an awful smell when cooking it and had 3 fans going but cooking in milk dampened the smell a lot. It was tender but the texture put me off. I’m not a fan of boiled onions but you couldn’t taste that boiled onions taste. It tasted like a savoury white sauce. My husband’s mum would make it once a week in Rhodesia. He loved it. I think a lot of these traditional meals were ‘economy’ meals so the ingredients are very simple and we’re cheap.
I’m in Scotland and can hardly get tripe except for Morrisons who sometimes stock it but hey it every time in Chinese supermarkets , mostly frozen so it can be kept until I fancy it – my dad loved it and we had a big bowl each with bread n butter
I’m an ex-pat Brit living in small town Alberta, Canada. Like some commentators I grew up in wartime England and remember in the years after, my mother feeding us tripe and onions occasionally. It was just the two of us and money was very tight. Tripe was an inexpensive option for a nourishing meal.
I spotted some frozen honeycomb tripe at the local supermarket and grabbed a small pack. I haven’t seen tripe here in forty years! My late wife despised the stuff so it has never been a part of my diet for a long, long time. It used to be cheap but not now! Today, I paid $15.85 a kg. That’s about ten pounds sterling. Does that seem expensive?
Thanks for the recipe, I’m looking forward to supper tomorrow!
Bought some yesterday and paid £6.65 for 1.1/2 lbs. Just about the same here in Scotland
My great-grandmother owned and operated a tripe shop in Clayton-le-Moors near Accrington from 1900 to 1949.
“Knight’s Tripe Shop”
158 Whalley Road
Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire
Items sold:
TRIPE:
Fatty Seam
Honeycomb (put vinegar in every hole, please)
Ladies Tripe (Cow’s uterus)
Elder (Cow’s udder)
COW’S HEELS
SHEEP TROTTERS (delicious from all accounts)
SHEEP’S BRAINS (Boiled and eaten, tasty gravy)
PIG’S FEET (Trotters)
BLACK PUDDING
POLONY (Know it was a stuffed casing, but that’s all)
There was a small eating place in the back which consisted of a table and a bench with salt, pepper and MALT vinegar available.
Grandma did a booming business during WW2 as meat was largely unavailable.
I am also an expat from Yorkshire, Doncaster, we used to have tripe and onions regularly but I seem to remember that my mum just boiled the tripe and onions in milk in a large pan. Never had that in 50 yrs..
I also remember going to the butchers for a couple of pounds of sparib, which was cooked all day in the coal heated oven and served with chips floating in the gravy, the bones were even soft enough to eat, delicious…. For years I have tried to figure out what sparib was, I just recently found it was spare rib so I decided to buy some. Local butcher had SIX small pieces for $35….. it used to be a cheap satisfying meal..
I was taught to cook Tripe and onions by my grandparents in Wheatley Hills, Doncaster .. and much more . All the Yorkshire dishes. I was well trained considering I was born areal Londoner . Never forgot though. My Grandad was a fishmonger who taught me to cook and dress a crab when I was a nipper 👌👌👌
My dad and grandparents were from Thorne Rd, Wheatley Hills. Still remember being fed tripe this traditional way . Now living in Spain where trioe is very popular, especially in Madrid . I still prefer it the Yorkshire way . In fact I’m in the middle of cooking it when I say this site to check I’m doing as I remembered. Spot on 👌👌👌💙
Nothing is cheap anymore I love tripe and onions but it’s expensivehere as well.
Faye, it isn’t expensive at around $15 kilo when one considers the much higher costs of meat etc. Also 1 kilo will feed 4 people, so it is not only delightful it is inexpensive!!
The reason why most butchers don’t have tripe and other offal nowadays is that they buy in cuts of meat already butchered rather than whole beast as they did in years gone by.
This is a good simple recipe, I add some white vinegar and chicken or beef stock and then mushrooms later on. You can of course add any vegetable such as diced carrot, peas, celery to even further enhance the wonderful flavour. Ya can’t beat it lad!!!!
Chadwicks Tripe and Black pudding stall on Bury Market in Greater Manchester,the best Black pudding and Tripe in the North of England. Just look at the queue on a Market day,people come for miles on coach trips every week. That is how popular Tripe and Black pudding still is today.
I live in Vancouver, Canada. I bought today 1 lb of tripe (5 UK pounds) from my local Chinese grocery. It was shredded & frozen. I am making tripe & onions right now. Vancouver is remarkable for its multicultural food !!!
We used to buy green tripe and hang it on the washing line. After thoroughly cleaning with a hosepipe it was boiled in a old copper. After many hours and some fat skimming it was cooled on a homemade rack and after chopping made a wholesome dog food.
Selected cuts were retained and made a fine lunch with malted vinegar and black pepper. I bet if you don’t understand the terminology you must be younger than 60 y/o
Friday July 7th 2023
Now I’ve just made it for myself which I do occasionally, like I do all the meals from my childhood! I always put my own twist so today I made Onion Sauce separately (mix flour and milk, add butter and diced onion softened in boiling water, then puréed )having cooked the tripe to tender in water first, adding chopped onion half way through the cooking. Strain well and incorporate with the Onion Sauce. This method keeps the dish very white, which I like ( no cheese).And!!! New season steamed potatoes with butter, on the side – except, the very floury part of the potato that breaks up when cutting add it to the tripe dish! Simply delicious! Thanks again mammy- from many, many years ago!
I grew up in Sheffield but my mum was from Lincolnshire and perhaps they didn’t make tripe there. So I never had it but it actually sounds delicious from the descriptions I’ve read here. I’ll have to try it sometime.
I have eaten tripe from being a toddler in the 50’s my mum had to eat bland milky food due to an Ulcer and I loved it – still do it and in my 70’s the only one of my family that eats it though – I do it in milk an onions salt and pepper cook for 30 mins when it comes to boil, and I do boiled potato in an other pan – then just mash the potatoes and pour the tripe milk and onions over it and the potatoes thickens the sauce. – don’t know why it says cook for and hour as it melts to nothing if done too long – and you can et it raw – so think 30 mins is enough
When I were a lad in Mansfield we had Tripe and onions most weeks. Some chip shops also served diced tripe and chips with lots of salt an vinegar. There were a big firm in Nottingham who sold nowt bur tripe and had 5 or 6 shops all over.
City
T
I WAS BORN IN MKT HARBORO LEICS, 1936. DURING THE WAR MY MOM WENT TO THE BUTCHER FOR OFFAL THAT WAS AVAILABLE IF YOUR SURNAME WAS ON THE WALL AS BUTCHER WORKED THRU THE ALPHABET SO EVERYONE GOT THEIR TURN. MY ONLY WAY FOR COOKING AND EATING IT WAS WITH TRIPE AND NEVER HEARD OF VINEGAR OR CHEESE. I AM IN THE PROCESS OF COOKING SOME RICHT NOW!
I’m a Lancashire lad born in ’42. My mother said that I was brought up during the war on knuckles of veal. We also got tripes, pig, honeycomb and elder. We also had lovely cow-heel pie with a bit of skirl beef mixed in mainly from the UCP shop in Rochdale.
I am in Nottingham born 1949 we had a tripe shop in HysonGreen, they also sold Faggots in gravy .
Im from New Zealand and love tripe. My father and I ate it but no one else in the family did.I especially liked it on toast for breakfast if there was any left over. Its hard to find anyone to eat it with but tonight another tripe loving friend is coming to dinner.
There is an Italian restaurant up the road where they get it in specially for me on my birthday every year but that is with beans and tomato sauce.
The West Riding town Heckmondwyke used to have three tripe shops. Yorkshire markets generally had a tripestall which also sold individual portions of tripe with vinegar, salt and pepper to nourish the weary shopper. Fried tripe was an occasional alternative to bacon at breakfast time, which was particularly moreish. The Milk Marketing Board Dairy Book of Home Cookery offered alternative recipes: Tripe and Onions (2lb Tripe / 1/2lb Onions) and Buttered Tripe with Cheese (2lb Tripe / 1/2lb Strong Cheese / 2oz Butter and 1 Clove of Garlic). The Normandy French add alcohol: Cider, Calvados, Dry White Wine (or all three!) to their Tripe à la Mode de Caen.
I’ve really enjoyed reading these comments! I was watching an episode of “All creatures great & small” where Mrs Hall served Uddersfield tripe and I decided to look it up. I’ve heard of tripe, of course, but never eaten it. Too squeamish. Maybe now I’ll try it when I see it in Vietnamese/Chinese/Korean dishes.
Greetings from Florida!
I like tripe. Haven’t had it since I was a kid. My grandparents were from England. Mom was born there and the family came to Canada when she was very young. My grandfather loved fishing and I always went with him when visiting them. When they came to visit our family they always brought tripe. We ate it with salt and vinegar. I grew up thinking it was fish as my grandfather fished a lot. They never said anything as they thought I knew it was a cow’s stomach lining. Haven’t had it for years but am planning on looking for it now.
I am born and breed in Australia and grew up eating tripe which my English mother use to make, so yummy. I can never get mine to taste as good as my mum’s so I will try your version of putting it on a casserole after the hour.