My stomach, and I suppose yours too, has this lining inside that keeps the yumyum from leaking out and digesting my innards. Pretty nifty arrangment, I think.
So I hear tell that there are some people out there who have incorporated the stomachs of sundry of God’s creatures into their diet. Which leads me to wonder, “How do you digest something that is made to not be digested?” Would a human have a different level of success in this effort depending on the origin of the stomach? Sheep stomachs digest quite well…but how about tiger stomach? Pony stomach? Human stomach?
The stomach tissue itself is perfectly digestible. What keeps it from being digested is that it secretes a layer of mucus that protects it from stomach acid and digestive enzymes. Dead stomach tissue with the mucus removed can be digested fine.
The stomach surely is eaten. When you live in a condition of chronic protein defifiency you don’t waste time cooking animal protein only to leave it to rot.
My ex wife’s grandmother, a wonderful cook from Mexico, served us a dish that tasted fantastic, the white bits in it were a bit chewy but went down easily. Half way through my second helping my now ex asked what we were eating. We were told tripe. Later, I looked up tripe in a dictionary.
Tripe: The rubbery lining of the stomach of cattle or other ruminants, used as food.
Yes, mondongo (tripe stew, usually very spicy) is a standard dish in many Latin American countries. I was once working on a project on a cattle ranch where the locals were having a celebration and brought me and my field crew a huge pot of mondongo as a special “treat.” Many, that stuff was chewy.
As vetbridge mentions, tripe soup isn’t that unusual even in the US; Campbell’s pepperpot soup (made of tripe) can be found in most larger supermarkets.
As can canned menudo; look in the “Mexican” or “Hispanic” section. Juanitas is the best brand, IMHO, and I’ve tried most of them. It’s often next to the canned hominy.
