Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

The tripe marketed in cities is already cleaned and boiled, and only needs to be scalded with boiling water, and scraped with the back of a knife, before finally dressing it for the table. But in the country, it may sometimes be necessary for the housewife to understand the entire process of preparing it for cooking. Tripe consists of the walls and SIDE-DISHES (ENTREES). 271 fatty portions of the stomachs of calves and cows, carefully cleansed and partly cooked by boiling. It is cleaned both with lime-water and with lye made from wood-ashes. When lime is used, it should be mixed with sufficient cold water to make it entirely liquid. After the stomach is emptied, it should be sewed up so that no lime can penetrate it, and allowed to remain in the lime-water for half an hour before scraping it. The lime must be washed off, or it will burn the hands. When ashes are used, the stomach is to be thickly sprinkled with them after it is emptied, and washed in plenty of cold water ; and it is put into a jar or firkin with enough boiling water to cover it, and remains in the lye thus formed for five or six hours before it is scraped. When neither lime nor ashes are available, the tripe must be repeatedly scalded with boiling salted water, and scraped until it is clear : after that it must be laid in cold salted water for a week, the water being changed every day. In treating the tripe with lime-water or lye, the dark surface can be removed by several scaldings and scrapings. The tripe should then be left in salted cold water for twenty-four hours ; after that it will be ready to be washed in fresh water, and boiled in salted boiling water, until it begins to look clear, and is tender enough to permit a broom-straw to be run through it. After tripe has been boiled, it can be kept in an earthen jar, covered with milk and water equally mixed, with sour milk or buttermilk, or with vinegar which has been scalded with plenty of spice, and poured upon the tripe while hot. The tripe bought already prepared should be well washed in plenty of cold salted water, and then boiled until tender in salted boiling water ; after that it can be pickled in scalding-hot spiced vinegar, or kept in milk or buttermilk for several days. There are many ways of cooking tripe ; and as it is nutritious and digestible, as well as cheap, it is an excellent winter food, when some of the meats most generally used are scarce and expensive. If it is prepared for the table immediately after the first boiling, it will require rather high seasoning. Tripe is usually broiled or fried, sometimes being first breaded, or rolled in flour. ROLLS OF TRIPE, CREOLE STYLE. Chop very fine one small clove of garlic, peel and slice one medium-sized onion and a pint of tomatoes, and fry them with a pound of sausage-meat until the meat begins to brown ; meantime, scald a pound of tripe, scrape it with the Rolls of Tripe, Creole Stale.