German Swabian Sour Tripe: Schwäbische Saure Kutteln

First for those unaware, tripe is the lining from the stomach of animals. In the U.S. it is sometimes referred to as "honeycomb tripe," because indeed, it does look like a honeycomb, and it is from a cow, but tripe from other animals is used the world over as a food source. Tripe dishes developed from its usage by peasants, but as time passed, it moved into the kitchens of people well outside the peasant world. In the German areas of Europe it is more common in many parts of the south, running from Swabia into Bavaria and into Austria, although it is not unknown in the northern areas, as a long time Prussian dish, "Königsberger Fleck," is still around (Königsberg was the provincial capital of East Prussia. After World War Two, East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union/Russia and Poland, and what was Königsberg is now Kaliningrad, Russia). As is common in German, there are regional names for this dish, with "Saure Kutteln" being common, but also "Flecksuppe," "Kuttelflecksuppe," "Pansensuppe," and I've even seen "Kaldaunensuppe." English once had "cwiþ" (=cwith), that meant, "belly," and it was a relative of modern German "Kuttel/Kutteln," and English still has "chitterlings," another relative of the German form, as is "cud;" that is, "food brought from the stomach to be chewed a second time by some animals." German speakers "tend" to use "Kutteln," which is the plural form, although "Kuttel," the singular, is sometimes said. In English, "tripe," a word of possible Arabic origin, but borrowed by English from French, is generally used as a plural, and "tripes," the true plural form, sounds somewhat strange, at least to the American ear, and perhaps to English speakers in general. The word tripe is also used as a slang term for "nonsensical talk." 

Besides the Prussian dish, Swabia, in southwestern Germany, is well known for their own tripe stew, "Schwäbische Saure Kutteln," and the Austrian state of Steiermark, in southeastern Austria, has "Steirische Flecksuppe." Outside of Swabia the tomato paste is often replaced with (ground) paprika, a seasoning Austro-German cuisine got from the Hungarians. Lard has long been used for this dish, but I use a mix of butter and olive oil. This is an easy dish to make, but it does take some time to cook the tripe initially. There are certainly some variations to recipes for this dish. "Schwäbische Saure Kutteln," is often served with fried potatoes (German: Bratkartoffeln).

Ingredients:

To cook the tripe:

2 pounds beef tripe
water to cover by about 1 inch
2/3 cup salt, divided use
2/3 cup white vinegar, divided use

For the stew:

cooked tripe, cut into strips or bite size pieces
2 baseball size onions, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons butter or olive oil (I use a mix of the two)
4 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 to 2 cups beef stock
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or white vinegar is fine)
2 teaspoons sugar (more to taste)
2 bay leaves
6 to 8 juniper berries (cracked or crushed)
1 teaspoon pepper
salt to taste (remember, the broth likely has a good deal of salt)

To cook the tripe: in a pot, cover the tripe with water, add 1/3 cup salt and 1/3 cup of white vinegar. Bring to a boil and adjust the temperature to keep the water at a good steady simmer. Cook the tripe about 35 to 45 minutes, then pour off the water (it will likely be a little foamy), add fresh water to the pot, the other 1/3 cup of salt and 1/3 cup of white vinegar. Increase the heat again to bring the tripe to a boil, then as before, adjust the heat to keep a good steady simmer. Cook until the tripe is tender, then drain it and let it cool a little. Cut the tripe into strips or cubes.

To cook the "Sour Tripe": add the butter and oil to a pan (I use a large skillet) over medium heat, then add the chopped onions and let the onions cook until softened. Turn the heat to low and stir in the flour. Let cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring the flour coated onion pieces constantly to prevent burning. In a bowl or measuring cup, add half of the red wine and stir in the tomato paste, then stir to break up the tomato paste and combine it well with the wine. Add this to the skillet gradually and keep stirring and let the mixture begin to thicken, then use the same technique to gradually add the rest of the wine and then the beef stock. Before adding the other ingredients, taste the stew and then stir in the sugar. I use 2 teaspoons of sugar, but I then taste the stew again, and at times I actually add an extra "good pinch" of sugar (I'm not generally a big fan of sour foods), so add what suits you, but remember, the stew is supposed to be tart; after all, it's called "Sour Tripe," but that doesn't mean it should take you an hour and a half to "unpucker" your mouth after eating some of this stew. Anyway, after you add the sugar, add the bay leaves, the juniper berries and the ground black pepper. It's good if you press down on the juniper berries with the back of a spoon or with a knife blade to just crush or crack them a little. This helps them to give off their flavor. Juniper berries look a lot like dried blueberries or black peppercorns, but they are much more like peppercorns, because they are hard in texture, although cooking softens them. By the way, juniper berries give the distinctive taste to gin. They are generally available in supermarkets and spice shops. Continue to cook the stew over low heat until the tripe is very tender. In spite of some of the names in German containing "suppe" (soup), this is more of a stew, but if you'd prefer a thinner version more like true soup, just add extra beef broth.         

Schwäbische Saure Kutteln with fried potatoes and tomato, radish and cucumber salad ...

WORD HISTORY:
Father-This goes back to Indo European “phater/phter/phaeter,” which meant, "father." This then gave Old Germanic “fader,” with the same meaning, which in turn, gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) “faeder,” and like with the word “mother,” the “th” spelling didn’t take place until the 1500s, but it seems to have been pronounced well before that time. Also like with “mother,” forms are common throughout the other Germanic languages, as German has “Vater” (the “V” is pronounced as an “f”), Low German Saxon has “vadder,” Dutch has “vader,” Danish and Swedish have “fader,” Norwegian has “far” (see note in “mother” above), Icelandic has “fathir,” East Frisian has "fadder" and West Frisian "faar" is an antiquated form, replaced by "heit," a word of VERY sketchy history.