Tripe soups

Tripe soup

Tripe soup (işkembe) from Turkey
Details
Course served	Soup
Main ingredient(s)	Offal (Tripe)

Tripe soup is a common dish in Balkan, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, and Eastern European cuisine. According to folklore, it is said to be a hangover remedy.

Names

• The Albanian language name is Paçe.
• The Bulgarian language name is шкембе чорба (shkembe-chorba), from Turkish işkembe.
• The Serbian language name is Шкембић (Škembići), from Turkish işkembe.
• The Croatian language name is Fileki, Tripice or Vampi.
• The Bosnian language name is Škembić.
• The Czech name is drštková polévka, often shortened to drštkovka.
• The French name is tripes a la mode de Caen
• The German names for tripe soups include Kuttelsuppe, Flecksuppe, Saure Kutteln, or Saure Flecke.
• The Greek version is usually called patsás (πατσάς) and sometimes skembés (σκεμπές), from Turkish işkembe.
• The Hungarian name is pacalleves or simply pacal.
• The Italian name is trippa alla fiorentina
• The Polish name is flaki or flaczki (which can also be literally translated to "guts").
  

  Polish flaczki
• The Romanian name is ciorbă de burtă; from ciorbă 'sour soup' < Turkish çorba + burtă 'tripe'. However if sour base made of fermented wheat bran called borş is used, the sour soup is called a borş, not a ciorbă.
• The Slovak name is držková polievka.
• The South Slavic languages borrowed the name as shkembe chorba (Cyrillic: Шкембе чорба).
• The Turkish name işkembe çorbası comes from Persian language shikambeh 'stomach/tripe' + shorba 'thick soup'. Chorba is derived from a Persian term شوربا from shor ("salty, brackish") and ba ("stew").

Variants

Bulgaria

Shkembe chorba

In Bulgaria, a whole pork, beef or lamb tripe is boiled for few hours, chopped in small pieces, and returned to the broth. The soup is spiced with ground red paprika which is briefly fried (запръжка), and often small quantity of milk is added. Traditionally, the soup is served with mashed garlic in vinegar and hot red pepper. There is a variant of the soup with intestines instead of tripe.

The soup was very popular with the working classes until the late 1980s, and there were many restaurants serving only shkembe chorba (шкембеджийница, "shkembe-restaurant"). Later they were replaced by fast food restaurants but the soup is still highly regarded, and is part of the menu in any cheap to moderately-priced restaurant. Office workers avoid eating shkembe chorba at lunch, or eat it without adding garlic.

Croatia

In Croatian cuisine, its is known as Fileki, Tripice or Vampi.

Czech Republic

The Czech version is heavily spiced with paprika, onions and garlic resulting in very distinct spicy goulash-like flavour.

Germany

There are a number of different German versions of this sour soup from southern parts of the country, including Swabia, Bavaria, and Saxony. Seasonings include lard, onions, garlic, meat broth, wine vinegar, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. In the nineteenth century in parts of the German Empire that are now Poland (like Silesia), "Flaki" was a street food. The tripe was cooked with long bones, celery root, parsley root, onions, and bay leaf. The tripe was then sliced, breaded and fried, and returned to the broth with some vinegar, marjoram, mustard, salt, and pepper.

Greece

A bowl of Greek patsás (with skordostoubi and hot pepper flakes)

The Greek version, called patsás (πατσάς), may be seasoned with red wine vinegar and garlic (skordostoubi), or thickened with avgolemono. The Greek version sometimes uses calf feet with the tripe.

Specialized tavernas serving patsa are known as patsatzidika. Because patsas has the reputation of remedying hang-over and aiding digestion, patsatzidika are often working overnight, serving people returning home after dinner or clubbing.

Hungary

In Hungarian cuisine, tripe soup is called pacal and heavily spiced with paprika.

Mexico

Main article: Menudo (soup)

Poland

The Polish name is Flaki or Flaczki which is a traditional Polish meat stew. It can be an acquired taste, but is one of the many soups that are an important part of the Polish diet. Its name is derived from its main ingredient: thin, cleaned strips of beef tripe (in Polish: flaki - which can also be literally translated to "guts").

Flaki has been consumed on Polish territory since the 14th century. It was one of favorite dishes of King Władysław II Jagiełło.

The method of preparation may vary slightly depending on the region. Some common ingredients include beef tripe, beef, bay leaf, parsley, carrot, beef broth, and spices to taste, including salt, black pepper, nutmeg, sweet paprika, and marjoram. Ready-made convenience-type equivalents of the labor-intensive flaczki are available. Sometimes pork tripe can be used instead of the beef tripe especially in the ready-made versions of the dish sold in Poland.

Tomato concentrate is sometimes added to flaki, and some may cook the tripe without a roux. A popular addition to improve the 'nobleness' is the addition of meatballs, which are often found in a regional variant known as 'flaki po warszawsku' (Warsaw-style flaki). Ready-made flaki in cans or jars are widely available in grocery stores throughout Poland which also include "Flaki po Zamojsku" (Zamość-style Flaki). A variant of flaczki, in which fowl stomach is used instead of cow’s, is also known and called ‘flaki drobiowe’ (poultry flaki). The soup is traditionally served during Polish weddings – as one of 'hot meals'. Flaki is eaten with fresh bread, usually with bread roll.

Romania

The Romanian ciorbă de burtă is similar to ciorbă de ciocănele (soup from chicken legs). Ciorbă de burtă is often seasoned with vinegar, sour cream, and garlic dip (crushed garlic mixed with oil), called mujdei.

In Romania to make the soup sour one often adds a home-made base called borș (fermented wheat bran). It is often seasoned with vinegar or lemon juice.

The Romanian journalist Radu Anton Roman said about Ciorbă de burtă "This dish looks like it is made for drunk coachmen but it has the most sophisticated and pretentious mode of preparation in all Romanian cuisine. It’s sour and sweet, hot and velvety, fatty but delicate, eclectic and simple at the same time."

Serbia

In Serbia, this soup is made of fresh tripe cooked with onions, garlic and paprika. It is usually seasoned with fried bacon and more garlic, sometimes thickened with flour (запршка). Some versions of shkembe chorba are made with milk; garlic, vinegar, and chili peppers are often added as seasoning.

Slovakia

In Slovak cuisine, it's known as držková polievka.

Turkey

In Turkey, tripe soup (İşkembe çorbası) is generally made of cow's stomach and eaten usually with a vinegar-garlic sauce added on the table or with the addition of an egg yolk-lemon juice (called "terbiye") in the kitchen, after cooking and before service. Although the general denomination of "işkembe çorbası" is very common, especially at the traditional restaurants dedicated to this soup, offal of cow and sheep and "kelle" (sheep head meat, especially cheeks, baked) are also offered. A dish can be ordered and made from the various parts of the stomach: "Tuzlama, işkembe, şirden and damar". As in several other countries, it is seen as a "hangover remedy" and finds itself a place in almost all New Year's Eve menus, served right after midnight. This has been the case since the 1800s, when it was first reported as a popular soup among Ottoman Muslims to consume immediately after a session of heavy social drinking, usually of rakı.

See also

• List of soups
• Mondongo

Further reading

• be-x-old:Флякі