Tripes à la Mode de Caen

Ingredients

• 500 g beef rumen (panse), cleaned, cut into 5 cm squares
• 500 g beef reticulum (bonnet/honeycomb tripe), cleaned, cut into 5 cm squares
• 250 g beef omasum (feuillet/book tripe), cleaned, cut into strips
• 250 g beef abomasum (caillette), cleaned, left in larger pieces
• 1 calf's foot, split by the butcher
• 1 litre dry Norman cider, per kilo of tripe; adjust proportionally
• 2 onions, peeled and sliced
• 2 leeks, trimmed and sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, whole, unpeeled
• 1 bouquet garni, thyme, bay, flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 4 whole cloves
• 100 g beef suet, in one piece, for sealing the top
• For the lut (hermetic seal)
• 60 g plain flour, approximately 4 tablespoons
• 30 ml water, approximately 2 tablespoons
• To finish
• 1 generous splash Calvados, added at service

Method

1. 1
   Heat the oven to 120°C. Prepare each stomach according to type: cut the panse and bonnet into 5 cm squares, the feuillet into strips, and leave the caillette in larger pieces. The textural variety of all four cuts is the point of the dish.
2. 2
   In the base of the tripière — or a deep Dutch oven — lay the sliced onions, leeks, and carrots. Place the split calf's foot among the vegetables. Layer the four prepared tripe cuts over the top. Tuck in the garlic, bouquet garni, peppercorns, and cloves. Pour over the dry cider: 1 litre per kilo of total tripe weight. The liquid should just reach the top of the tripe without submerging it entirely. Lay the piece of beef suet flat across the surface to seal the top of the mass.
3. 3
   Work the flour and water together with the fingers into a pliable rope. Press this lut firmly around the entire rim of the lid so that the pot is sealed hermetically. This is where the dish lives or dies: any gap in the seal allows moisture to escape over 12 hours, leaving the tripe dry and the sauce thin. The paste should be an unbroken ring, pressed into contact with both lid and pot.
4. 4
   Transfer the sealed tripière to the oven and cook at 120°C for a minimum of 10 hours, ideally 12. Do not open the pot during cooking. At 10 hours the lut will have hardened and browned; the kitchen will carry the low, sweet smell of cider and rendered collagen.
5. 5
   Break the hardened lut seal at the table or at the stove. The tripe is done when each piece yields completely to a spoon with no resistance, and the braising liquor is golden, silky, and deeply savoury. Lifted from the heat and left to cool, the sauce should set to a soft gel — evidence that the calf's foot collagen has dissolved fully into the liquor.
6. 6
   Add a generous splash of Calvados directly to the pot just before serving. Stir once to incorporate. Serve steaming from the tripière into warmed deep bowls.