Everything about Menudo Soup totally explained
The soup
menudo is a traditional
Mexican dish; a frequently spicy
soup made with
tripe. It is often thought of as a cure for a hangover, and is traditionally served on special occasions or with family.
In pre-revolutionary Mexico, poverty among the
campesinos was chronic, and little if anything that might be prepared as food was left to waste. Usually, the best cuts of meat would go to the
hacienda owners while the
offal went to the
peasants. These leftovers consisted of
organ meats, brains, head, tails, hooves, etc. As
cattle and
sheep are
ruminants that require lengthy intestinal tracts to digest their diet of grasses and raw seeds, the stomach is one of the largest pieces of offal available from these animals.
There are a number of variations on menudo, including
blanco (white or clear),
verde (green), or
rojo (red). Typical condiments added to menudo are dried
oregano,
epazote, ground chile flakes,
lime juice, fresh
cilantro and chopped
onion. Due to the length of time needed to cook tripe to be tender enough to be edible, menudo is generally cooked in large batches and sold as a special menu item in Mexican restaurants, although it's occasionally prepared at home. In some areas menudo is sold as a weekend-only specialty in regular restaurants (typically announced by signs reading
Rico Menudo fines de semana). In other areas, menudo is made daily, but mostly sold in restaurants and market stalls (
fondas) that specialize in the dish.
There are a number of regional variations on menudo. In northern Mexico, typically
hominy (creation of hominy is one step in the production of
tortilla dough) is added, and in northwest states such as
Sinaloa and
Sonora usually only the
blanco, or white, variation is seen. Adding
patas (beef or pigs feet) to the stew is popular but not universal. In some areas of central Mexico, "menudo" refers to stew of
sheep stomach, "
pancitas" stew of
beef stomach. The red variation is usually seen in
Chihuahua, the northern state adjoining
Texas. A similar stew made with more easily cooked meat is
pozole.
The popularity of menudo in Mexico is such that Mexico is a major export market for stomach tripe from US and Canadian beef producers. Large frozen blocks of imported menudo meat can frequently be seen in Mexican meat markets.
The word "menudo" in Mexico can mean the raw stomach meat as well as the stew. The word
tripas (tripe) normally refers to the small intestines rather than the stomach.
Tripas are also eaten, but normally in
tacos rather than stews.
In southeast Mexico, menudo is more commonly known as
mondongo (the South American version of menudo), and it doesn't include the traditional grains of corn.
In the last season of the 1970s television series
Sanford and Son, Fred Sanford made a reference to menudo in almost every episode. It was thought to be his favorite dish.
Menudo also refers to an entirely different dish made in the
Philippines. This dish, in contrast, is made of garlic, onions, diced pork chops, pork liver, diced potato, diced carrots, green bell peppers, soy sauce and tomato sauce, and seasoned with salt and pepper while it's cooked. Filipino menudo will usually contain tripe though common variants will include chickpeas, red peppers and raisins.
Menudo (from Latin minūtus) also means "small, thin, worthless, vulgar, (money) change, tripe, and tithe from small orchards"
(External Link
). It is unknown if the soup came to be known as menudo, since it was made up of tripe, or if any of the other meanings, which are many, have something to do with it.
Menudo is eaten for breakfast and is known as the "Breakfast of Champions" in New Mexico and Texas.
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