How to process salted tripe

Many people have never heard of salted tripe. This kind of tripe generally refers to the tripe sold in businesses, which has been fermented with edible alkali. Therefore, the processing of salted tripe is also very important. Salting tripe has a certain impact on the nutritional content of tripe, so attention should be paid to water retention.

Most businesses or hotpot restaurants use the alkali method to make tripe, that is, using edible alkali (sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate) to make it. Although the tripe made with alkali meets the quality requirements in terms of taste, it has three major defects.

1. First of all, the nutritional components of tripe are severely damaged, which is determined by the corrosiveness of alkali.

2. Secondly, the storage time of alkali-fermented tripe is relatively short (two or three days at most), which is determined by the storage method (alkaline-fermented tripe is generally preserved by soaking in weak alkali liquid. Although this helps the tripe retain moisture and makes it crispy and tender, if the soaking time is too long, the tripe will lose its bone strength due to excessive corrosion and will break into pieces if squeezed by hand).

3. Thirdly, if the alkaline-fermented tripe is blanched for too long, it will become tough. This is due to the nature of the alkaline-fermented tripe (heating will cause the moisture inside the tripe to quickly flow into the soup). The fermented tripe can be eaten directly after blanching, but the moisture inside it will easily seep out and be lost (just like alkali-fermented tripe), making the tripe not crispy. In fact, the key to making tripe crispy is to have enough moisture inside and to keep it during blanching so that it is not easily lost.

4. Therefore, the fermented tripe must also be treated to retain moisture. Put the soaked and rinsed tripe into a basin, add a little water (just enough to cover the tripe), then add sodium tripolyphosphate at 2‰ and sodium pyrophosphate at 1‰ of the total weight (tripe and water), stir evenly, and soak for 2 hours.

5. Note: The addition ratio of the above two water-retaining agents is already the maximum amount allowed for them; if the tripe is not in a hurry to be used, it should continue to be soaked in the water-retaining agent solution and stored in the refrigerator.