Alright, people. You must have known this recipe was coming sooner or later. For the past year or so I have been playing around with nourishing soups (recent examples are here and here), so I thought it was time to tackle the mother of them all: Menudo. This tripe soup is often considered the ultimate hangover cure, similar to many bone broth soups found worldwide.
In Northern Mexico, Menudo is cooked with hominy, which is a form of corn that has been soaked in an alkaline solution. This process (called nixtamalization) removes the hull and germ from the kernel, effectively removing most of corn’s toxic anti-nutrients and making it more digestible. This process has been around since at least 1500 BCE, when people in present-day Mexico and Guatemala would soak their corn in water mixed with wood ash. If you do decide to use hominy in your recipe, be sure to get the organic stuff to ensure it isn’t made with GMO corn. But definitely feel free to omit the hominy and still consider the recipe authentic: it is also called Pancita in some regions, and from what I can tell Pancita also doesn’t usually include hominy.
serves six
soup base:
2 lbs honeycomb tripe, sliced into 1″ pieces
2 pig’s feet, cow hooves, or beef knuckles
12 cups water
2 bay leaves
chili paste:
6 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
1/2 medium white onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp dried oregano, Mexican oregano preferred (more to taste and to garnish)
1 tsp dried cilantro
2 16oz cans organic (non-GMO) hominy (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 2 limes
1/2 medium white onion, diced (garnish)
crushed red pepper (garnish for additional spiciness)
Menudo is made with all sorts of bones to make the broth, but the most common I’ve seen are pig’s feet, cow’s hooves, or beef knuckles. For my own purposes I used pig’s feet to add an interesting dynamic and to avoid a soup that’s too “beefy” tasting.
I should also note that it’s easiest to cut the tripe when it’s partially frozen. Also, for the sake of saving time, you don’t need to thaw out your pig’s feet (or cow’s hooves, beef knuckles) before cooking.
Put the feet and tripe in a large pot, and fill it with water. Boil for 10 minutes, then drain and rinse gently with cold water. Return the pieces to the pot and fill with enough water to cover everything by at least 1″, about 12 cups total.
Bring everything to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer for one hour. Be sure to scoop up any foam or fat that accumulates on the surface. After an hour, add the bay leaves and simmer until the feet just start to fall apart, about another hour. Add water as needed to keep the pieces fully submerged.
As the soup simmers, prepare the chili paste by placing the chiles in a small pot with about one cup of water, and bring to a boil. Once it starts boiling, remove the pot of chiles from the heat and let it sit for about thirty minutes. Once they are cool, blend the chiles with the onion and garlic, adding some of the water you boiled the chiles in if the paste gets too thick.
Once the pig’s feet are just starting to fall apart, add the chili paste (pour it through a strainer to catch any big chunks or seeds), oregano, and dried cilantro, and simmer for another 30 minutes. Next, fish the feet out and set them aside to cool while the soup simmers for another 30 minutes. This is also when you would add the hominy if you’re using it. Once the feet are cool, remove any pieces of meat you can find and add it to the soup. Discard the rest of the feet.
After the soup has simmered for an additional 30 minutes (three hours total – one hour with just the tripe/feet, one hour with the bay leaves, 30 mins with the chili paste, 30 mins without the feet), it’s ready to serve. Add salt and pepper to taste (probably about 1 tbsp salt and 1 tsp pepper), and add the lime juice. Serve with diced white onion and more dried oregano, and crushed red pepper for additional spiciness. Some people like to add fresh chopped cilantro as well.
Many people like to refrigerate this soup overnight and reheat the next day, to allow the flavors to marry, and I think that’s a pretty good idea.
The Domestic Man 
OK, you’ve convinced me! Just added tripe to the list for my weekly trip to the butcher.
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Getting ready to start cutting the tripe making a big pot for fathers day.
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I get the sizzors that I use in the kitchen and cut my tribe it is easier and faster
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Please, “CLOSE MY ACCOUNT – UNSUBSCRIBE – ME. Thank you.
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Hi Julie, unfortunately I don’t have the ability to remove people from my mailing list, it’s automated. You’ll have to click on the “manage subscriptions” link at the bottom of the email in order to remove yourself. I apologize for any inconvenience.
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Menudo is awesome!! Cooking it right now :-)
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This looks delicious! I don’t think that I am quite prepared for such an artful enterprise in culinary, but I will have the idea in mind in the future.
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I first tried this at work in a casino that I worked in. I had never had it before but once I tried it I loved it. My son married a Mexican and her mother makes this. It is so good. At her wedding this is one of the dishes that we had. I am going to be trying this. Let you know how it turns out.
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Looks good. Where did you get your tripe.
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Kate, I got mine from US Wellness Meats:
http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Detail.bok?no=1240&affId=135214
But you can often find it at your local Asian market.
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you can also find it your local supermarket. thanks for the recipe russ – – i will be trying it out soon!
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Thank you for putting this recipe here so that we can make it. When I was small my mother ( who has since passed ) use to make it very close to your recipe. She never
wrote anything down, she was the kind of person that would use a pinch of this and a
and that. Yet her recipe for Menudo was always the same and as yummy as the time before. She also never let me near her stove ( her pride and joy of her kitchen) So I
learned how to cook at my Home Ec. Class which schools don’t offer any more do to
funding cuts. So Thanks again. Keep up putting all of these wonderful recipes on the
internet so that they will never be lost.
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Martie, happy to be of help, and thanks for sharing!
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This recipe is spot on. The only recommendation is to use soe crushed tomatoes (with juice) when making yhe chili paste. The acid frim the tomatoes makes the flavor realy pop where as other wise iy lacks the punch. :) Enjoy. This is a great recipe!
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Oh man this picture made me want to eat it!! My family makes Menudo only during Christmas. It’s something I totally look forward to eating. I have made it at home and the recipe is very similar. It’s something my grandmother has made for ages!! I may have to make some soon. I also find the Mexican markets sell the spices cheaper as well. Thank you for taking me back to my childhood! Make this it’s a great hangover cure us Mexicans totally eat it after a night out!!
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Looks good! Will have to prepare this Saturday for my Sunday morning hangover Menudo!
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You are officially the Organ King!
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Looks great and sorry I always thought Menudo was a group…!
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Honeycomb tripe is so beautiful… makes me wonder why so many people don’t go near all the rest of the beast! Thanks for the inspiration.
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A savory dish that calls for honeycomb…. this is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
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This looks great, hopefully someday you do a recipe for pork pozole, my Mexican friends are tight lipped when it comes to that recipe
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Mike, it’s on my list!
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YESSS! I am going to make this for my Dad on father’s day.
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Coming from a Sicilian family, my mom made tripe alot. She would par boil it in broth, then add it to a rich ragu of tomatoe sauce and let it slow cook for hours. The smell of it made us kids sick to our stomachs. Only two of my siblings including my dad ate tripe. I preferrably don’t like it, but my man does. He is a Menudo eating fool so instead of using the old siciliano recipe I am going to use your Mexican one. Thanks for posting it Domestic Man, you are fearless!!!
Gina Fiamma
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I lived in El Paso for 30 years and I can remember my Mother making Menudo occasionally …..I had the job of cutting the tripe ( unfrozen ) with a knife and it can be awkward to handle but I discovered that it is easier to use kitchen scissors……..many years later as a HS teacher on cold winter mornings our cafeteria ladies would sometimes have Menudo at breakfast ( I am sure that it was not a school-board approved menu item. )….I also remember having onion breath for a few hours afterwards.
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Hi jrl I also lived in El Paso back in the 50s when Mom made menudo. Lately my 2 sisters and I have been talking about the way our mom made menudo. We all agree with the basic menu but we have differenence on the “pata” part. When I make it I use pigs feet but my older sister says she used beef hooves. Well I looked at many receipies and found that many of them use veal knuckles, cow hooves and pigs feet. I use pigs feet, the others are to big. Oh by the way don’t put so many onions in the menudo, taste the menudo and chile with a little lima.
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I have cooked 8 #’s shin (marrow) bones, I also added a duck carcass. Cooked broth all day. Than Strained it, put the wonderful marrow and sm amt meat off the bones (set aside for later). Your idea of cutting tripe with scissors is a
great idea. I struggled with a sharp knife. OK, I chilled the broth, and removed 1 qt of fat I added the 4 #’s of tripe, 1 clump garlic chopped, 1 onion, 1 jalapeno and 2 Serrano’s chopped, 1 whole bunch of cilantro chopped s & p to taste, 1 beef shank with bone in, 1 can of las palmas enchilada sauce, and the wonderful marrow I set aside. I will let this cook for 3 or 4 hours and than chop meat of shank and add back to soup, along with hominy and taste for flavor. Wow, this is a lot of work. I do believe it will taste fabulous as I started with a rich broth.
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looking to use lamb chops for the meat in my menudo? Need recipe. thank you
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Haze, I did a cursory look online and didn’t find any recipes similar to that. What I’d do if I wanted to add lamb chops to a soup would be to cook them separately – grilled or pan-fried – to med/rare, then let them rest and cut into bite-sized chunks to add to the soup before serving. Chops are lean and wouldn’t have a very good texture if stewed for a long period of time – something like lamb shoulder would be a better addition to a soup because its connective tissue would break down and add richness to the soup. Using lamb’s feet instead of beef hooves would add a lambiness to the overall taste as well. Let me know if that helps or if you have any questions!
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Just encountered this and boy would husband love me to venture it. Where do you get your non-GMO hominy?
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Priscilla, to tell you the truth I don’t remember where I found it, but any organic produce is technically GMO-free. I would just keep an eye out for organic hominy – if not, it can be made pretty easily from dried corn (which is much easier to find organic).
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I made this and followed the recipe to the letter and it looks great but it’s bland compared to what I’m used to having at the restaurants that server it. Are there any suggestions to get that rich flavor?
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Mike, sorry to hear that you didn’t find it very tasty, I typically find this to be a very flavorful dish. When a soup is underwhelming, I find that a lack of salt is often to blame. I would experiment a bit with adding more salt to see if that does the trick; another option would be to add a bit more acidity to punch up the flavors – try adding a bit of Tabasco sauce to see if that gives it the body you’re looking for. At any rate, it’ll definitely be more flavorful the next day as well. Good luck!
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I figured out that it’s the lack of acidity which is easily remedied by using crushed tomatoes or the like when making the chili paste. Realy brings the flavor up.
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I always add a little bit of chile de Arbol to the Guajillo paste, just to add a kick. This dish is my favorite from childhood, my grandmother made it occasionally. Now I for my family. Thank you.
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I ate this growing up and absolutely love it – but we always had the “white” menudo – so no chili paste. The flavor came from a long simmer with both a tendon and some oxtail, then lots of onions, dried oregano, and lime once served. I’m wondering if you were able to find dried cilantro in a regular store or did you need to go to a special Mexican market. As I recall, I remember only seeing coriander in stores.
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Don’t know where you got that recipe, but here is how we do it in Mexican households: cut up the meat, onions and pig feet if not frozen, put it all in the pot and cover with water, add your chili,. salt and garlic and dried oregano, now, at the beginning, and cook it all together for about 3 hours. T he corn has t o get soft, the meat tender and the flavors blended. I also add some chicken bullion, so I do not add salt. The bullion and the pigs feet give the soup a very rich flavor. When it cools it should almost gel. Serve it with tortillas, chopped onion, chopped cilantro.
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Sounds yummy. I’ve never seen Menudo with pork, so it must vary some from region to region or household to household. My Mexican born grandmother always used a ankle joint and ox tails to make the broth rich. And we had menudo blanco, so you could spice it up to your liking. Either way, there’s no other soup like it!
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I am bed bound with a longterm (8yrs) severe immune and gastrointestinal illness. I have someone who makes me beef bone broth according to the Weston a Price recipe which takes 36 hours. However given my extreme digestive dysfunction and issues I wanted to add tripe for extra health properties but am keen not to have to chew or eat it.
I used to drink a cup of the beef broth and liked it very much but though the recipe hasn’t changed the last two batches have been unbearably bovine/feety (!) in flavour – it becomes palatable to drink when added to a chard soup.
Would the addition of tripe alter the flavour much – I’m not naturally a great fan of meat and certainly dislike organ meats but I very much want to get any possible benefits from the addition of tripe. Would one simply drain the liquid and pour away the tripe along with the bones and onion, celery etc that is added whilst cooking. Also how long would only add the tripe in for the last hour?
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You could cook the tripe for a very long time as tripe itself has very little flavor. It’s also quite dense and wouldn’t break down like veggies do. If you aren’t going to actually consume the tripe I would cook it for at least 24 hours.
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I have been making Menudo for over 40 years from my Grandmothers recipe. Your recipe sounds about right, but what I can’t express enough is that you have to wash the tripe very well before you cook it. I usually soak and rinse it at least 5 times before cooking it. It cuts the grease as well as bacteria and makes for a much tastier broth.
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My husbands favorite meal is Pancita. He likes what he callls libro. What is it and where can I find it. Thank you
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Hi Nancy, “libro” is a type of tripe that has flaps (like a book). Here is a picture of it in this recipe, it’s the one that the author is pinching in one of the photos: http://mesayita.com/recetas-formulas-instrucciones/pancita-de-res-clasica-levanta-crudos-no-menudo-no-mondongo-no-callos.html
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This is the 3rd time I’ve made this. I made a few small changes (New Mexico peppers for the paste, 1 jalapeño, a little rice and barley) Its a favorite now!!!
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this is great! thanks for sharing this. i fell in love with mexican menudo and it’s insane. the philippine version of menudo which i grew up on was entirely different
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I have never made menudo in 3 hours. Usually more like 6 to 8 hours is best.
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I have made this recipe twice and got Such GREAT reviews, it has become my standard Menudo recipe, thank you !!
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Would this recipe work if I halved it?
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Hi kt, it should definitely work in a half portion!
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my late mother in law, who was italian, had an ‘italian’ version of this. like in this recipe, she would cut and boil the tripe in water for about 10 minutes and then drain and rinse. then, back into the pot with water to cover it and start the simmering. to this she would add chopped onions, a bit of fennel seed and oregano, and a good dose of basil. then, it was a large can of whole or chopped tomatoes as well as any fresh tomatoes if she had any and about one or two potatoes that had been cut into cubes. (the potatoes were added after about an hour or so so they wouldn’t break down.) also, a little crushed red pepper for some zing. it would just simmer away and, because she started out with a decent amount of water, she did not add any more. if she wanted a little more flavor sometimes a chicken cube. at the last half hour, a can of drained small pitted black olives. absolutely wonderful.
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