080Patsas, tripe soup

Method

Thessaloniki night-owl broth. Serve scalding hot with plenty of crusty bread, skordostoubi (garlic-vinegar), and hot boukovo chilli flakes.

You will need

• Large heavy-bottomed stockpot (8 litres)
• Slotted spoon and fine-mesh sieve
• Large cutting board and sharp knife
• Small mixing bowl or cruet for skordostoubi

1. Place the cleaned tripe and split calf's foot in a very large pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil for 10 minutes over high heat, then drain completely and discard the blanching water. 15 min Ready when: impurities and strong initial aromas are eliminated
2. Rinse the meats under cool running water, wipe the pot clean, and return both the tripe and trotter to the pot. 5 min Ready when: pot and blanched meats are clean and free of scum
3. Pour in 3500 ml fresh cold water, add the whole peeled onion, whole peppercorns, and salt, and bring to a gentle simmer over medium-high heat. 15 min Ready when: the pot comes to a steady, quiet simmer with minimal foam
4. Skim any residual surface scum with a ladle, reduce the heat to low, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and simmer gently for 3 to 3.5 hours. 200 min Ready when: the tripe is tender when pierced with a fork and the trotter meat falls away from the bone
5. Meanwhile, prepare the skordostoubi condiment by whisking the crushed garlic paste into the red wine vinegar in a small glass jar or serving bowl. 5 min Ready when: garlic is thoroughly dispersed into the sharp vinegar
6. Lift the tripe and trotter pieces out of the broth onto a large cutting board, leaving the stock simmering on low heat. 5 min Ready when: meat is separated from the hot liquid
7. Discard the trotter bones and onion; slice the tripe and any soft trotter tendon meat cleanly into strips or fine bite-sized dice according to preference. 10 min Ready when: tender, evenly chopped pieces ready for the broth
8. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve back into the pot, return the chopped tripe and tendon meat into the liquid, and simmer together for another 10 minutes. 10 min Ready when: the rich, collagenous broth binds harmoniously with the meat
9. Ladle the piping-hot soup into deep wide bowls and serve alongside the skordostoubi and spicy boukovo for each diner to spoon in to taste. 5 min Ready when: broth is steaming hot and visibly glossy from gelatin

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Make ahead and storing

The entire soup can be made a day in advance; the broth will set to a firm jelly in the fridge and reheats beautifully.

Keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days, or frozen for 2 months; reheat gently to liquefy the gelatin.

Substitutions

• pork trotters for calves' foot (or trotters). Common in northern Greece and delivers an equally thick, gelatinous body to the broth.

Common mistakes

• Skipping the initial blanch-and-drain step.. Produces a murky, unappealing broth with an excessively pungent offal odor.
• Boiling the soup vigorously on high heat instead of a gentle simmer.. Vigorous boiling breaks down meat fibres prematurely and leaves the broth cloudy rather than silky.

Regional variants

• Patsas kokkinistos: finished with a spoonful of fried tomato paste stirred into the simmering broth.
• Patsas avgolemono: beaten eggs and lemon juice whisked into the strained broth at the end for a creamy finish.

About the dish

Patsas holds a legendary place in urban Greek food culture, especially in Thessaloniki and Athens, celebrated both as a warming working-class staple and as the ultimate late-night restorative after nocturnal revelry. Specialised diners known as patsatsidika keep pots of tripe and calves' feet simmering through the night. The broth gains its rich gelatinous body from long-simmered trotters, while the tripe is either cut coarse (hondrokomenos) or fine (psilokomenos). Diners customise their bowls with skordostoubi (a potent garlic-vinegar mixture) and fiery boukovo chili flakes.

Found in Macedonia, Attica, Thessaly. Cooked for everyday, winter.

Cousins elsewhere

• İşkembe çorbası (Turkish). The quintessential Ottoman tripe soup served with garlic-vinegar condiment, widely acknowledged as part of the shared urban night-time tradition.
• Shkembe chorba (Bulgarian). Bulgarian tripe soup similarly uses garlic, vinegar, and hot dried chillies as table condiments, though often cooked with milk.
• Ciorbă de burtă (Romanian). Romanian sour tripe soup thickened with sour cream and eggs, sharing the fundamental boiled tripe base.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

435 kcal · protein 50.8 g · fat 22.9 g (saturated 8.2 g) · carbohydrate 4.4 g (sugars 1.2 g) · fibre 0.8 g · sodium 2070 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Following the classic Thessaloniki patsatsidiko method, combining beef tripe with calves' foot for rich natural gelatin, finished at table with garlic vinegar and boukovo..