Pork stomach (tripe)
The pig's stomach, a thick muscular pouch scrubbed repeatedly with starch and salt (or vinegar) to strip its mucus, then blanched and scraped clean. Long boiling turns it tender with a satisfying chew and gives the soup a savoury depth all its own. The vessel and star of white-pepper pork tripe soup.
TCM properties
Nature · warming Flavour · sweet Meridians · spleen、stomach
Traditional food therapy
In Cantonese food therapy it is used to strengthen the spleen, replenish deficiency and dispel cold, the 'strengthen the stomach with stomach' logic of the tradition.
Cautions: read first
- High in cholesterol, so keep the portion moderate
- It smells off if it is not cleaned properly
Preparation
Rub it over and over with starch and coarse salt (or white vinegar) to strip the mucus, then blanch it (飛水) and scrape the white membrane clean.
Origin
Farmed on piggeries nationwide; Asian markets mostly stock it frozen and pre-cleaned. Sold frozen and pre-cleaned in Australia
Availability in Australia
Easy to find
