Polish tripe soup (flaki): three hours of simmering, three tablespoons of marjoram
A soup that cannot be hurried. Tripe is largely collagen, and collagen turns into soft gelatine only after two and a half, sometimes three hours of gentle simmering — there is no shortcut and a higher flame does not help. What you get in return is a broth that is thick and velvety of its own accord. The rest is vegetables cut into fine matchsticks, a blond roux, and more marjoram than seems reasonable, which turns out to be exactly right.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Rinsing and blanching 15 min
- Tripe simmering 150 min
- Vegetables 30 min
- Roux and seasoning 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 done
Rinse the tripe
Shop tripe is already cleaned and sliced, but rinse it under cold running water for 2 to 3 minutes, working it through your fingers. If you buy it in sheets, cut it into strips 5 mm wide and 5 cm long.
Ingredients: 800 g cleaned, sliced beef tripe · 500 g beef marrow bones · 3000 ml water · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs bay leaves · 6 pcs allspice berries · 8 pcs black peppercorns
TipBuy tripe that is white or cream-coloured and smells of nothing much. Greyish, slimy or sharply barnyard-smelling tripe has been stored badly, and no amount of cooking will fix it.
Cold water, 5 mm strips
Blanch and throw the water away
Cover the tripe with water, bring to the boil and cook 10 minutes, skimming the grey foam. Drain the whole lot in a sieve, rinse the pot, and rinse the tripe in warm water.
TipThis first water carries off residual fat and the compounds behind tripe's characteristic smell. Poured away, it turns an assertive soup into a delicate one. Never keep it as the base of the broth.
Ten minutes, then all the water goes
Simmer gently for two and a half hours
Cover the rinsed tripe with 3 litres of fresh water, add the bones, charred onion, bay leaves, allspice and peppercorns. Bring to the boil, skim, and simmer under a tilted lid over very low heat for 2.5 hours. The surface should barely tremble, not bubble. Do not salt at this stage.
Ingredients: 800 g cleaned, sliced beef tripe · 500 g beef marrow bones · 3000 ml water · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs bay leaves · 6 pcs allspice berries · 8 pcs black peppercorns
TipCollagen turns into gelatine slowly — just below the boil it takes hours. A hard boil in an open pot does not speed this up; it only clouds the broth and boils it away fast. Salt only at the end, as the broth reduces a lot over these hours and is easy to oversalt.
A barely trembling surface, two and a half hoursTest whether the tripe is ready
Lift out a strip and cut it with the edge of a spoon. If it goes through without resistance, and a bitten piece is soft and slightly gelatinous, the tripe is done. If it springs back like rubber, simmer another 30 minutes and test again — sometimes it takes a full three hours.
Add the vegetables
Remove the bones, onion and spices. Cut the carrot, parsley root and celeriac into fine matchsticks and the leek into half-moons. Add to the pot and simmer 25–30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Ingredients: 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs parsley root · 150 g celeriac · 1 pcs leek, white part
TipMatchsticks, not dice: the vegetables should echo the shape of the tripe strips, so that a spoonful reads as one dish rather than a soup with things added to it.
Matchsticks, not dice
Make a blond roux
Melt the butter in a small pan, add the flour and cook over medium heat 2 minutes, stirring, until it smells nutty but stays pale gold. Loosen with two ladles of hot broth, whisking until smooth, and pour into the pot. Simmer 5 minutes.
TipA roux cooked for less than 2 minutes leaves a raw, floury taste in the soup; cooked longer it darkens and loses thickening power as the starch breaks down. Pale gold is the point where it has both.
Pale gold, loosened with broth
Season generously with marjoram
Add the salt, pepper, paprika, ginger and nutmeg. Crush the marjoram between your palms over the pot — all 3 tablespoons — and simmer 3 minutes more. Taste: flaki should be distinctly peppery and strongly marjoram-scented; it is the marjoram, not the broth, that makes this soup what it is.
Ingredients: 40 g butter · 2 tbsp plain flour · 3 tbsp dried marjoram · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 pinch ground ginger · 1 pinch nutmeg · 2 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper
Three tablespoons of marjoram, crushed by handServe
Ladle into deep bowls and serve with bread and separate little dishes of marjoram and pepper, so everyone can add their own. The next day flaki is thicker and better; it keeps 3 days in the fridge and freezes well.
Ingredients: 6 pcs rye bread
With bread, marjoram to add at the table
Before you start
In a pressure cooker
After blanching, cook the tripe under pressure for 45 minutes instead of 2.5 hours. The result is very close, though the broth comes out slightly less clear.
Make a batch
Cook a double quantity of tripe in its broth and freeze it in portions without the roux and marjoram. From that base, dinner takes 20 minutes.
Warsaw-style flaki
The same base plus 2 tablespoons of grated hard cheese and small meatballs from 200 g minced beef dropped in for the last 15 minutes, until cooked through. The festive version, considerably more filling.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
