A Romanian Favorite: Tripe Sour Soup (Ciorbă de burtă)

Aside “sarmale” and “mititei”, the dish known as “Ciorbă de burtă” (tripe sour soup or “gut soup” as others may call it) is the closest thing to a “national dish” you can get in Romania.

The “ciorba” can be ordered in almost all restaurants with national specific, but the best you can get is “home made” with a recipe that varies from household to household (the variations are small though, for example I prefer adding 1 celeriac and some garlic for taste, while in other households these ingredients are completely ignored).

Fortunately in Germany I can buy tripe that is already washed and ready to cook, so my recipe is based on such an ingredient. For regions where such an ingredient is missing, just ask the local butcher to give you fresh tripe, cleaned and bleached if possible. He’ll probably give you a funny look and if he doesn’t clean it and bleach it, you will have to go through a lot of trouble to clean the fresh tripe, but the end result is well worth it.

Fresh tripe needs to be boiled with salt for 4-5 hours, then strain and cut julienne (keep the broth).

Below the ingredients for a tripe sour soup as I cook it:

• 1 kg tripe (prepared as described above),
• 1 leg Veal or other pieces of Veal,
• 2-3 carrots,
• 1 parsnip,
• 1 celeriac,
• 2 whole onions (peeled),
• pepper for taste,
• garlic for taste
• 2 egg yolks,
• 1 pickled pepper (for taste)
• vinegar for taste
• 200g sour cream

With the carrots, onions, parsnip and celeriac (add black pepper for taste) make a vegetable broth. Mix with the tripe broth, add julienne-cut tripe, and boil till the broth is evaporated by half. Remove from stove.

Mince garlic, and mix well with sour cream and two egg yolks. Add the mixture the the soup, stirring continuously. Add some vinegar (add and taste), and 1-2 pickled red-peppers (Capsicum) cut julienne for taste. Serve hot, with more garlic, a spicy chilly pepper and sour cream if you wish.