One of my biggest surprises (and disappointments) since moving to France is how many of my bourgeois French share the very common non-Lancastrian aversion to les tripes, les andouillettes, les rognons etc. On the other hand I love surprising other French friends with accounts of the tripe and black pudding shops of my childhood (albeit some time ago).
Down here in the Aveyron, no fishing match can start before there has been a breakfast of tripoux or téte de veau.
The only other traditional English tripe fans I know are from inner London or Kent, but I’m sure it can’t have been so localised.
Can anyone out there enlighten me - are there loads of regional British recipes of which I’m unaware?
Memories of wintry months - every Saturday my (English) Gran would put a liver and bacon casserole to cook gently while she and I went shopping.
I have no idea of all the ingredients - I can only assure you of the wonderful smell which wafted towards us as we opened the back door.
Gran was sensible enough to leave the table laid - everything ready for action. It only remained for us both to throw off our coats, wash our hands and settle ourselves swiftly at the table, eager to dive into the hot grub.
In all these years, I have never found anything to match that taste…
Devilled kidneys, breakfast dish of yesteryear. Personally, love veal kidneys in grainy mustard sauce. In Germany you cannot fail to see all kinds of liver sausage… Frankfurt (my hometown) has a dish of coucroute with liver and blood sausages.
Oh marvellous, when I go to Germany I can’t wait for Schlachtplatte with Wirsing and all the deliciousness. And lovely Leberle Berliner Art or every way. Sauer mit Brägele
Mother in Law made a superb steak and kidney pie. Using pigs’ kidneys (chopped into small pieces) to add a wonderful flavour and richness to the meat and gravy under the pastry lid.
Lambs’ kidneys: halved and dusted in flour, then gently fried in butter until lightly browned and cooked through, although not hard. Fabulous on toast for breakfast.
Lambs’ livers, thinly sliced, dusted in flour then gently panfried in a little butter… yummy over the top of a big spoonful of fluffy mashed potatoes. A lovely light lunch.
But oxtail is so easy to make, I just cut off most of the fat, brown the meat in a heavy casserole dish, add lots of carrots and onions, brown some more and then cover everything with a can of Guinness and some stock. Spices to add salt, pepper, bay leaves. Pop the pot into a low oven 140C and go away for at least 4. If the meat it tender, let it cool right down overnight, remove all fat from the top and thicken sauce with a bit of cornstarch. Lovely winter dish served over mash or pappardelle noodles. Any leftovers can be used up as a soup by adding some more stock and some sherry, brandy or red wine…
Your version sounds delicious. I’d love it, you can invite me anytime it is on the menu. (OH wont eat it so I’ll leave him a sandwich.)
He’s used to be very picky and, in those days, often preferred ready-made to my tentative home cooking.
He would not come near the kitchen while I was doing the oxtail but had agreed to try whatever ended up on his plate, so long as it was soup (blitzed) . (because he liked Campbell’s).
After many years, he now enjoys my cooking and even likes helping with the preparation .
But he wont eat oxtail casserole and that is that.
Absolutely! Since OH doesn’t eat meat I don’t either, but this is a cheap and lovely dish that I’d do for visiting carnivores. I don’t even bother to cut off the fat as leaving it overnight means yiu can skim it off after. So very quick to prepare.
I’m from inner London, and OH from Kent and we both grew up on offal. In post war surely it was widespread?
Brawn, chitterlings. I haven’t eaten these since I was a child. I doubt you could get them now. I think the French are much better at using offal in cooking. When we were younger the children would eat liver, but not now. I can’t see the attraction of tripe.
Some ox tail alternatives that might tempt picky OHs:-
Use cue de veau instead - it’s milder and less fatty
Use ox cheeks - easier to trim the fat
Try the Ste Ménéhould mode, it’s a bit more faff, but well worth it (works well with poitrine d’agneau, pied de porc and other fatty meats). I’m sure lots of readers know it from their yellowed, well stained copies of Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking, but if not you can find it below
Ox cheek is the favourite alternative to the tail. If I could get hold of some pork cheeks (Iberico Black Pig) plenty of sherry required and a generous amount of mild onions…
I grew up in a ‘frugal’ house hold, but offal was not considered awful more a challenge.
Have you never heard of Bath chaps Stella?
An old English delicacy using pig cheeks.
Braised beef cheeks are wonderful and I used to buy cod cheeks from the fishmonger in Minchinhampton. The girls loved them with a homemade tomato sauce.
I have had to buy a new one, but kept the old one.
I bought a complete set of Elizabeth David books with green shield stamps, well before 1974.
The first cookbook I bought was the Penguin book of cookery and the Oxo Cookery book for school.
Do you know the book Budget Gourmet by Geraldene Holt?
Another paper back falling to pieces and well worth buying.
Haggis, haggis, lovely lovely haggis, 3 cheers for haggis, it is our fav’rite thing 
Your version sounds delicious. I’d love it, you can invite me anytime it is on the menu. (OH wont eat it so I’ll leave him a sandwich.)
(because he liked Campbell’s).
