Menudo

Ingredients

Tripe

• 1.5 kgbeef honeycomb tripe, cleaned
• 2 tbspcoarse salt, for cleaning
• juice of 3 limes, for cleaning
• 500 gbeef foot or knuckle, for body

To boil

• 5 litreswater
• 1onion, halved
• 1 headof garlic, halved
• 2bay leaves
• 1 tbspdried oregano
• salt

Chile sauce

• 6guajillo chillies, stemmed and seeded
• 4ancho chillies, stemmed and seeded
• 2chiles de árbol, for heat
• 3garlic cloves
• 1/2onion
• 1 tspcumin seeds
• 1 tspdried oregano

Hominy

• 800 gcooked hominy, or 2 tins drained

To serve

• finely chopped onion
• dried oregano
• chilli flakes
• lime wedges
• warm corn tortillas

Directions

1. Rinse it under cold running water for several minutes. Rub it all over with coarse salt, working into the honeycomb. Rinse it and repeat the salt rub once more. Rub it with lime juice and leave it for ten minutes. Rinse it until the water runs completely clear. It should no longer feel slippery when you are finished. Put the tripe in a large pot and cover it with cold water.
2. Bring it to a hard boil and boil for ten minutes. Drain it all off and rinse both the tripe and the pot. Cut the blanched tripe into pieces of about four centimetres. Put the tripe and the beef foot in the clean pot. Cover them with the five litres of fresh water.
3. Add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, oregano and salt. Bring it to the boil and skim the foam thoroughly. Lower the heat until it barely simmers. Simmer it for three to four hours. Top it up with hot water so everything stays covered. Take a piece out and cut into it. It should give easily with a slight springiness left.
4. Toast the dried chillies in a dry pan for thirty seconds a side. They should soften and smell fragrant but must not blacken. Put them in a bowl and cover them with hot water. Soak them for twenty minutes until fully soft. Char the onion half and the garlic cloves in a dry pan.
5. Turn them until blackened in patches and softened. Toast the cumin seeds briefly in the same pan. Put the drained chillies in a blender with the charred aromatics. Add the cumin, oregano and a ladleful of the tripe broth. Blend it until completely smooth. Press it through with the back of a ladle. Discard the skins and fibre left behind. Lift out the beef foot and pull off any meat.
6. Return that meat to the pot and discard the bones. Remove the onion, garlic and bay leaves. Stir the strained chile sauce into the pot. Simmer it for another forty-five minutes. Add the cooked or tinned hominy to the pot. Simmer it for a final twenty minutes.
7. Taste the broth and adjust the salt. It should be rich, deep red and clearly chilli-flavoured. Ladle it into deep bowls with plenty of broth. Set out chopped onion, oregano, chilli flakes and lime. Squeeze lime over generously, which lifts the whole thing. Serve warm corn tortillas alongside.

Technique

• The hangover reputation is folk belief rather than anything demonstrated.
• Include beef foot or knuckle, since its collagen is what gives the broth body.
• Strain the blended chile sauce, or gritty chilli skins end up in the broth.

Substitutions

• Tinned hominy in place of dried, which most cooks use.
• A pressure cooker to shorten the tripe simmer to about ninety minutes.

Variations

• Menudo blanco, made without the chile sauce.
• Pancita, the central Mexican version.
• With pig’s trotter in place of beef foot.

History

A northern Mexican weekend soup of tripe and hominy, cooked in huge pots for family gatherings and long trusted as a hangover cure.

Frequently asked questions

What is Menudo?

Menudo is a soup & stew from Mexico: tripe in red chile broth, famed weekend hangover cure. A northern Mexican weekend soup of tripe and hominy, cooked in huge pots for family gatherings and long trusted as a hangover cure.

How long does Menudo take to make?

Menudo takes 1 hour of preparation and 5 hours of cooking. The recipe makes 8 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Menudo?

Yes, within limits. Tinned hominy in place of dried, which most cooks use. A pressure cooker to shorten the tripe simmer to about ninety minutes.

What is the most important thing to get right in Menudo?

Toast the dried chillies in a dry pan for thirty seconds a side. They should soften and smell fragrant but must not blacken. Put them in a bowl and cover them with hot water. Soak them for twenty minutes until fully soft. Char the onion half and the garlic cloves in a dry pan.