Shkembe Chorba (Bulgarian Tripe Soup with Garlic Vinegar)

• 500 g blanched beef tripe (the white, pre-cleaned kind)
• beef stock from 2 stock cubes and 1 litre water (or 1 litre beef broth) — it cooks down to about ½ litre
• about 800 ml fresh whole milk, warmed
• 2 tbsp oil
• 50 g butter
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed, to serve
• 6 tbsp wine vinegar, to serve
• crushed dried hot pepper, to serve

Method

The cook speaks Bulgarian; every step is written here in English. Tap a time to watch that step in the video. For subtitles, tap CC in the video, then Settings › Subtitles › Auto-translate › English.

1. Rinse the blanched tripe, cover it with 1 litre water and 2 beef stock cubes (or beef broth) and simmer until fully soft — 20–30 minutes for blanched tripe. 1:39
2. Lift the tripe out of the broth and leave it to cool so you can cut it. 3:15
3. Pour about 800 ml warmed milk into the hot broth (about 1½ litres of liquid in all, as about ½ litre of broth is left) and bring it just to the boil for a minute. 4:00
4. In a small pan, warm the oil, then melt the butter in it without letting it fry. Take it off the heat and stir in the paprika so it doesn't burn. 4:54
5. Pour the hot red paprika butter into the soup — the red fat should float on top. 6:48
6. Crush the garlic and stir it into the wine vinegar in a small bowl. 7:50
7. Cut the tripe into small pieces, add it to the soup and simmer 1–2 minutes. Serve with the garlic vinegar and crushed hot pepper for everyone to add to taste. 9:15

Tip. His written recipe uses 1 litre beef broth and ½ litre milk. Other regions thicken it with flour, or eggs and yoghurt. Usually eaten with bread — on its own it stays low in carbs.

The method is a summary in our words — the video shows every step.