Beef, variety meats and by-products, tripe, raw

Tripe is the lining of a cow's stomach, most commonly the honeycomb-patterned variety, and it has a spongy, chewy texture with a very mild flavor that readily takes on whatever it's cooked in. It's rarely eaten on its own; instead it's simmered for hours in seasoned broths, as in Mexican menudo, Vietnamese pho, Italian trippa alla romana, or Caribbean-style soups, where long cooking softens its naturally tough texture. It pairs well with tomato-based or spiced broths, hominy, lime and fresh herbs, which help balance its subtle flavor, and many cooks blanch it briefly first to clean it before the long simmer that follows.

When buying tripe, look for pieces that are pale, clean and free of any strong odor, and keep it refrigerated, cooking it within a couple of days or freezing it promptly since it's a perishable organ meat. Raw tripe is notably lean, with just 85 calories per 100 g and only 3.69 g fat, while still delivering 12.1 g protein per 100 g (24% DV), making it a low-calorie option for slow-simmered soups and stews where the cooking liquid, not the meat itself, does most of the flavor work; sodium sits at 97 mg per 100 g, moderate compared with many other cuts.