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Original poster

Kids these days will never know the glory of the tripe stall

169 replies

Tben · 14/07/2026 00:13

When I was growing up in the 1980s, I used to go shopping in the town centre with my Gran every Saturday. Amongst our many ports of call, we’d always go to the tripe stall on the fish and meat market to get some tripe for my Grandad.

A whole stall devoted to selling the stomach lining of a cow.

Kids these days will never know of such things. Tripe
is gone, never to come back. I was there, at the end, as it passed into history.

I hated it myself of course - the look, the smell, just… no.

OP posts:
QueenSmartypants · 14/07/2026 01:58

MissFancyDay · 14/07/2026 01:56

The big arteries and vessels running through it. We'd always call them pipes 😂

I don't know what my mother was thinking. She'd never have done that to her grandchildren.

Show quote history

Shudder

Haha mothers and their grandchildren are a different thing entirely!

MissFancyDay · 14/07/2026 01:56

QueenSmartypants · 14/07/2026 01:37

Pipes?

Show quote history

The big arteries and vessels running through it. We'd always call them pipes 😂

I don't know what my mother was thinking. She'd never have done that to her grandchildren.

ZZTopGuitarSolo · 14/07/2026 01:49

I’m 56 and don’t remember tripe stalls in the UK, but I last tried to eat tripe in Florence.

I didn’t even manage one mouthful…

QueenSmartypants · 14/07/2026 01:37

MissFancyDay · 14/07/2026 01:30

Same here. I probably sound very ungrateful but memories of regularly having to sit at the table and eat up all my liver, a massive great chunk with pipes running through it, before I was allowed to get down, still traumatises me to this day 🤢

Show quote history

Pipes?

fost · 14/07/2026 01:33

Any1ForTennis · 14/07/2026 00:25

I just discovered this week that dissolvable stitches are made from sheep intestines, we may not eat tripe but our wounds are still being sewn up with sheep guts 😱.

historically they were, and some still are, but there are also synthetic absorbable sutures, so it's not a foregone conclusion you'd be getting animal-based ones.

MissFancyDay · 14/07/2026 01:30

AnonymityAnonymity · 14/07/2026 01:24

Oh I remember once when I was a child, many many years ago, my mother served us tripe. I can still remember how disgusting it looked.
I don't know if I even tasted it but I do remember refusing to eat it and I was so adamant about it I was allowed not to - in those days we usually weren't allowed to leave the table unless we had eaten all our meal.

I also remember the time my mother cooked rabbit and my brother teased me that it was our neighbours pet rabbit, Bunty, that had died and we were about to eat. I was in floods of tears and refused to eat that as well.

Our meal times were the very opposite of fun and pleasure!

Same here. I probably sound very ungrateful but memories of regularly having to sit at the table and eat up all my liver, a massive great chunk with pipes running through it, before I was allowed to get down, still traumatises me to this day 🤢

QueenSmartypants · 14/07/2026 01:29

What did it smell like? I was a child of a privileged time, the closest thing to offal I've had is a sausage!

AnonymityAnonymity · 14/07/2026 01:24

Oh I remember once when I was a child, many many years ago, my mother served us tripe. I can still remember how disgusting it looked.
I don't know if I even tasted it but I do remember refusing to eat it and I was so adamant about it I was allowed not to - in those days we usually weren't allowed to leave the table unless we had eaten all our meal.

I also remember the time my mother cooked rabbit and my brother teased me that it was our neighbours pet rabbit, Bunty, that had died and we were about to eat. I was in floods of tears and refused to eat that as well.

Our meal times were the very opposite of fun and pleasure!

MissFancyDay · 14/07/2026 01:00

Tben · 14/07/2026 00:13

When I was growing up in the 1980s, I used to go shopping in the town centre with my Gran every Saturday. Amongst our many ports of call, we’d always go to the tripe stall on the fish and meat market to get some tripe for my Grandad.

A whole stall devoted to selling the stomach lining of a cow.

Kids these days will never know of such things. Tripe
is gone, never to come back. I was there, at the end, as it passed into history.

I hated it myself of course - the look, the smell, just… no.

We didn't have tripe as a child but we had a lot of haslet. Does that still exist?

NoWordForFluffy · 14/07/2026 00:57

sittingonabeach · 14/07/2026 00:44

Our dog when I was a child had to eat tripe due to digestives issues. Used to get it frozen from the pet shop. It wasn’t the white stuff humans eat, but green smelly stuff. It was disgusting

Our family dog had this too. Utterly grim. 🤢

MissFancyDay · 14/07/2026 00:57

InterestedDad37 · 14/07/2026 00:15

I'm an adventurous eater - but tripe is a big no-no. I last ate it 40 years ago.
Kids will never know the urine smell of a public telephone box either. That's on a par with tripe 😂

Oh god, I just smelled that smell. The memory runs deep.

Nat6999 · 14/07/2026 00:55

Are you by any chance talking about Sheffield Market? My mum used to cook Tripe & Onions when I was a kid with a mountain of mashed potatoes, I was never keen on the mash but I loved the Tripe & Onions, I always had an enormous bowl full & always went back for seconds, the only downside was getting the saucepan clean afterwards as it always used to catch on the inside of the pan. I still eat it now if ds is shopping in the Market, he brings me a 5kg bag & I cut it up into pieces & freeze it in meal sized portions, happily now I cook it in my Ninja 11 in 1 which means I no longer have a saucepan that is only fit for the bin afterwards.

Dariella · 14/07/2026 00:47

Tripe is still available in The English Market in Cork city in Ireland, OP.
Just in case you miss it too much 😉

sittingonabeach · 14/07/2026 00:44

Our dog when I was a child had to eat tripe due to digestives issues. Used to get it frozen from the pet shop. It wasn’t the white stuff humans eat, but green smelly stuff. It was disgusting

operationplaytime · 14/07/2026 00:41

I can’t even feed tripe to my dog!

I do love that it was treated like some kind of delicacy 😆

Any1ForTennis · 14/07/2026 00:25

I just discovered this week that dissolvable stitches are made from sheep intestines, we may not eat tripe but our wounds are still being sewn up with sheep guts 😱.

Original poster
Tben · 14/07/2026 00:22

I remember they also sold brown stuff in a block called Elder. Only as an adult did I find out that Elder is a cow’s udders.

OP posts:
YeastAndCheeseInfatuation · 14/07/2026 00:17

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InterestedDad37 · 14/07/2026 00:15

I'm an adventurous eater - but tripe is a big no-no. I last ate it 40 years ago.
Kids will never know the urine smell of a public telephone box either. That's on a par with tripe 😂

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