Meaning of tripe dealer

[Mart 'n' Al]

I came across the ancestor of a friend whose occupation was described as Velmonger. It seems it is specifically a dealer in the entrails of calves. The word veal comes from the same origin, and also apparently the surname V e l l.

Martin

[carol8353]

My mum grew up in the north and loved tripe,vinegar and onions( had to be raw though)
When she met my dad and moved to London in 1947,my gran thought she'd get her tripe as a treat,but boiled it to death. I remember my mum saying that it tasted like rubber (and it didn't raw???) and it put her off for life.

[LizzieW]

I love tripe and onions (born a Northerner!), we had it cooked, we also ate cold tripe with vinegar on it.  We also used to eat brain, sweetbreads, beef tongue and oxtail.  Imagine children today eating those things and enjoying them - well I didn't enjoy brain, neither did I enjoy pig's trotters or cow-heel, so slimy.  Ugh.

However, like Mart 'n' Al, I ordered a tripe dish in a French restaurant.  It was cooked in a tomato sauce but I couldn't eat it and had to order something else.  It wasn't white tripe that I was used to it was the brownish looking stuff and the texture was something I just couldn't take to.

[silvery]

How interesting that things can be made from tripe.  (horrible stuff)    Google gives a few links.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-22641175/cow-stomach-handbags-designed-by-edinburgh-student

[Pennines]

Oh my gosh --- Tripe -- this thread has made me smile.

I'm from Lancashire and tripe used to be very well known and popular here. There was a stall in the local Market Hall which sold just Tripe and Trotters. Imaginitively known as the Tripe Stall to the local population!

I could never stand the sight, smell or consistency of it - so would never partake.
However the funniest thing to me (and funniest is probably not an appropriate word in the circumstances) -- is that one of my Great Grandfathers was admitted to Whittingham Asylum in 1884 -- in his admission papers one the many strange claims the admitting Doctor said my Gt Grandfather made was that 'he managed Mr Robinson's Tripe Works at a salary of £7 a week'.

Clearly he thought managing a Tripe Works was a really important job to hold. His brother in law told the Doctor that my Gt Grandfather had never been employed at Mr Robinson's Tripe Works on any salary!

[barryd]

Tobacco, tripe and trotters. No thank you. But to be fair if everyone gave up Tobacco there would be no money left for OAP's.

[Ian999]

Let’s face it, the Brits have a World wide reputation for being bad cooks.
Tripe is wonderful stuff if you cook it right. It should not be slimy, rubbery, or smell barnyardy. All of those things are the fault of the cook.

There are 4 stomach compartments in the cow, with the best tripe – honeycomb and book tripe coming from compartments 2 and 3 respectively. The mucosal lining is cut off and the rest is muscle and chondroitin/glucosamine – the stuff the health food types take as pills.

For the best tripe, in my opinion, go to a Cantonese Dim Sum restaurant. They usually have steamed tripe with garlic and ginger or tripe in a light curry sauce. The Chinese know their food and this is pure ambrosia.

[HughC]

I was once given tripe during a brief stay in hospital.  Supposedly it slips down easily.  I forget whether I was able to eat any of it, but I vowed never again.  Brains and sweetbreads (pancreas or thymus) are quite a different matter.  Haven't seen them for years.

Apparently the four stomachs [or four compartments] are called rumen, reticulum, psalterium, and abomasum.  The second means a little net, the third a book of psalms, which I suppose explains the names that Ian mentions.

[ThrelfallYorky]

The market hall in our closest town when I was a child had a tripe stall. I believe it sold different sorts of tripe, pigs' feet, and calves feet! I did once taste the tiniest fragment of tripe, but ... never ever again!