Only an artist should attempt to make Tripe à la Mode de Caen because
only an artist can make it. It requires the soul of a poet, the spirit
of a painter, and the exaltation of a violin virtuoso in the maker as
a prerequisite for its concoction. Of course, it may be eaten by the
commonalty, but it is too good for them. It really is a dish for the
intelligentsia.
There are not more than a dozen people in the United States who have
the temperament and the touch required. One of these is Roy Carruthers.
And herewith, as my favorite recipe, I set down the complicated but
necessary, procedure for producing this work of art:
Take four pounds of fresh honeycomb tripe and one pound of fresh
manyplies tripe (the thickest part) and wash thoroughly in many changes
of fresh water. Drain well, and scrape to have all absolutely clean.
Take two calf’s feet and carefully bone each foot and cut into pieces
two inches square. Have a large earthen pot, scrupulously clean, and
line sides and bottom of this pot with very thin slices of larding
pork. Place tripe and cut up feet in pot.
Add two small red carrots, two white onions with two cloves stuck
in each, and half of a sound, seeded pepper. Make a bouquet of two
leeks, two branches of celery, three branches of parsley, and a sprig
of thyme, marjoram, a blade of mace and a bay leaf—only one. Put this
bouquet in the pot and pour in a half pint of white wine, a pint of
cider and a quart of consomme or white broth. Season with a full
teaspoon of salt and half a spoon of black pepper.
Now make a stiff dough with a pound of white flour and two gills of
water, roll out on a table until you have enough to cover the pot, and
cover closely, making sure there can be no evaporation.
Place pot in a very slow oven and cook for fifteen hours.
Then lift up the cover, skim off the fat, and remove the bouquet of
herbs and the vegetables.
Chop together six shallots, or scallions if shallots are not
procurable, the red part of a carrot, a bean of sound garlic, two
ounces of raw ham and an ounce of raw lean pork. Place this hash in a
saucepan with a tablespoon of melted butter, cook gently on the fire
for five minutes, stirring lightly, and then pour in half a gill of
cognac and let it reduce briskly until it is nearly dry.
Put the contents of the pot on the saucepan, add a gill of pure tomato
juice, mix lightly with a wooden spoon, and cook slowly for forty-five
minutes.
Then dress the tripe on a deep hot dish, sprinkle a little freshly
chopped parsley over and send to table very hot with twelve slices of
toasted French bread.
That is real Tripe à la mode de Caen. All others are imitations.