tripes à la mode de Caen

A 14th-century Benedictine monk named Sidoine Benoît at the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen is said to have invented this recipe to make tripe more enticing. It’s still the best known tripe recipe in France; La tripière d'or confraternity even holds contests to see who makes the finest tripes à la mode de Caen.

The recipe involves all kinds of tripe (preferably in late autumn, after the cows have eaten many fallen apples that lends their stomachs a special flavour) cooked in a very large pot with calf feet and bones sliced open, plus onions, carrots, leeks, garlic, cloves, peppercorns, a bouquet garni, a bottle of cider and a cup of Calvados.

The pot should be sealed tight with dough and cooked for seven to twelve hours or so. Before serving, the feet and bones and bouquet garni are removed.

You can also buy tripes à la mode de Caen ready made in jars or tins or vacuum packed, if you want to taste it before going to all that trouble.