Identity card
Revered by Homer, praised by Rabelais, tripe is honoured by our chefs and appreciated by consumers.
Tripe is the dish obtained by cooking the parts of the stomach (rumen, reticulum, and omasum) of a cow, calf, sheep or pig, in a jelly seasoned with vegetables, herbs, bouillon, wine, cider and/or Calvados, and sometimes with boned trotters.
The famous recipe of tripe “à la mode de Caen” first became known in Paris, in the 19th century, at a restaurant run by two well-known gentlemen from Normandy, Heutte and
Pharamond, on Rue de la Grande-Truanderie. Their tripe was made from Normandy cows fed on rich grass and apples that fell from trees so that the juice soaked into the lining of their stomachs. “Tripous” is a by-product in the form of small parcels of tripe made from the stomach lining of a sheep, calf or lamb, seasoned and stuffed, bound and cooked in a white wine sauce. “Pieds-paquets” are bundles of mutton tripe (stuffed intestine or stomach lining) combined with boned mutton feet. “Gras double” (called tablier de sapeur in Lyon) groups the thickest parts of the stomach lining.
Production and consumption
In cuts or preserves (glass jar), France has many tripe recipes (à la mode de Caen, Auvergne/Ferté/Provençal/Lyon/Marseilles/Cambrai/Rousillon style) and names (authentic, genuine, traditional, old style, etc.). Tripe recipes also come from elsewhere (Bulgarian tchorba,
Lombardy busecca, Arab barbouche, Scottish haggis, etc.). The French market totalled 6 664 tons in 2010 with 40% self-service, 30% by the cut and the same again in preserves (cans and glass jars). (sources: FICT, Tripiers de France )
At Rungis Market
“Last year we sold 13.5 tons of beef tripe and 17.5 tons of gras double,” explains Mr Patrice Parant, General Manager of Audebert. “Our principal clients are butchers, tripe butchers and delicatessens in stores or on markets, while traditional and gastronomic restaurants are becoming rarer. We also sold 27 tons of raw tripe, half of which is used in Asian cooking. The prices have risen significantly, +10% in two years, since the entry of Eastern European countries in the EU, as they are large consumers of beef tripe, leading to an increase in the raw material.”
Séverine Littière
