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

[Tben]

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.

My DH is very fond of tripe - he used to get it in Kirkgate market in Bradford when he was a student - he assures me it’s delicious eaten fresh with salt and vinegar! His late DM would always get some for him when we visited. She used to buy it locally, or get it from the market in Macclesfield. These days, he only has it when we go to France, where it features on many a menu - tripes à la mode de Caen, tripes à l’ancienne or tripes à la Lyonnaise, for example. You can buy it tinned in the supermarkets - he usually brings some home with us! I do not care for it.

You can buy jars of Polish tripe soup in the international type supermarkets here.

I love heart, trotters, pigs head and liver. I once ate nearly my bodyweight in chicken hearts in a Brazilian all you can eat BBQ place.

My Nan was a huge fan of tripe and would eat it straight from the market stall paper, with loads of vinegar. Also Lancashire.

I stayed at a supposed luxury hotel with work, in the Swiss Alps. With hindsight I think the chef might have been having a funny turn because we were served tripe with chickpeas and broccoli for breakfast. I had a life changing hangover and this dish nearly finished me off.

No tripe stall in my childhood (thankfully!) but I remember going shopping with my mum in the 1980s and asking her what the packet of ham-looking stuff called ‘tongue’ was.

Tongue, she replied. Actual tongue.

I was horrified!

My kids do eat (and enjoy) a fair bit of niche animal product, as DH has a Caribbean background and oxtail, cow foot and tripe are used in certain dishes.

I don’t eat meat 😉

We used to get liver and onions as a school meal - can you imagine that today. Liver was like the leather sole of your shoe!

The best bit about my Grandad eating tripe was that although he was a working class man (miner), my grandparents weren’t badly off. A combination of a state pension, a generous pit pension, and a very low cost lifestyle meant they had thousands in savings. He could’ve eaten fillet steak.

I suppose old habits and customs die hard!

Tripe and onions was one of my most favourite meals in the 70’s. Only my Dad and I enjoyed it but poor mum would make it around once a month, it was boiled in milk and yes really stank the house out. I found some a few years ago and offered to cook it for Dad. It tasted awful so unsure if my tastes have changed or what. I can actually eat most things, love all offal and have eaten many animals and parts of. Wouldn’t eat rat though

From the 1970s into the 1990s my Mum used to show labradors and we usually had at least 3 of them. She used to buy whole cow's stomachs from the abbatoir and boil it in this big boiler in the garage. The smell was horrendous and Mum wore a mask, like a gas mask, for the whole process. You could smell it several streets away.
Once it was cooked she would dice it up and freeze it in bags in a big chest freezer.
Apparently it was great for the dogs, and very economical.🤢

They weren't a thing where I grew up but they were where my grandma lived so everytime we went to visit my dad would always get some (as well as cockles!)

I would never touch it, I might have had a tiny bit once but stuff like that wasn't for me.

I was very much a smoked salmon and prawn child, that's as far as I went with adventurous food.

I had some in the restaurant there about 25 years ago. I was contemplating it and the woman serving asked if I'd like to try a bit. She gave me a whole potato and a bowl full to try for free. It was delicious and I ate it all but was too full up to buy any more. I still feel slightly guilty.

River fish have to be kept in clean water for a while to get the mud out of their system I believe.

M&S do liver and bacon ready meals!

I love liver and bacon and make it for myself from time to time.

I grew up in 70's and 80's and never ate tripe or saw it in Waitrose. It was for poor people!!

My grandad loved it but nanna did not. You can still buy it, they sold it in Morrisons where I used to live, think it was popular with overseas students

That's very amusing.

It used to be the Oysters were the food for poor people, like yourself, and now the new rich crave them. One wonders why?

Anyway, you may find that tripe follows a similar pattern and it makes a resurgence amongst the 'chavs' and 'ne'er do wells'.
Who knows what will happen in this world today?

Aha, that's interesting! Never fancied eating carp. I believe it's very bony and often tastes muddy.

Oh gads min,I remember my Gran cooking it in milk with onions.
She gave me a taste🤮🤮
And the smell🤮

We had a tripe stall on our local market in Lancashire in the 80’s. My grandparents were the war generation and offal was easier to get. It also wasn’t rationed after 1941 and was a valuable source of protein. Grandad loved pigs trotters too and cow heel. He still went rabbiting with his Jack Russell’s in the 70’s.

Has anyone mentioned pigs trotters yet? Nom nom. Or a whole pigs head being roasted? Terrifying to see as a child. Not that keen as an adult for that matter.

I might make a trip there. I love tripe, with salt and vinegar. A good quality butcher told me they should have it but the abbatoir sells it to fancy London restaurants.

In Leicester indoor market there used to be several, that was 40 years ago.

Also remember several market stalls selling tripe - was it cooked? Just thinking if people ate it with salt and vinegar? What did it taste like?

We used to have “penny duck” which was offal mixed with breadcrumbs and sage - absolutely delicious!

my grandad loved tripe. He used to eat it covered in vinegar.
I was never brave enough to try it.

Or eels? Used to be sold live on metal tables in east end markets then someone would chop their heads off when they were sold. Traumatic childhood.

Bleurgh! 🤢