Tripe is simply a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals and most of it is from cattle, pigs and sheep but it can be from any ruminant so you might find venison tripe. It is an offal product – offal is a general term for the edible entrails and internal organs of farmed animals like liver, kidney, tongue, heart, tripe, etc.
British people who grew up in the UK in the mid to late 20th century were still familiar with all sorts of offal but tripe was increasingly looked on as unsavoury. Consumption of tripe has fallen in the UK every year since 1958 due to the ending of rationing, increasing consumer spending and a widespread perception that it is not fit for human consumption. If you put ‘tripe’ into the search box of supermarkets’ websites today, all the answers will come back as dog or cat food. Tripe became so synonymous with unwanted food that the phrase “that’s a load of tripe” was quickly in common use meaning “that’s rubbish”.
Tripe is still a well-known food in lots of countries like Spain, Italy and Turkey. In southern USA you can, of course, find deep-fried tripe in a buttermilk batter. The UK actually has a Tripe Marketing Board which replaced The Tripe Council, which itself replaced the Tripe Industry Development Council!
In less affluent times though tripe was used as a very nutritious food. In 1917 a company in Wigan – Vosa and Sons – went so far as to open a wood-panelled ‘Tripe De Luxe’ restaurant that had seating for over 300 diners. Local newspapers carried adverts like this one from the Lichfield Mercury dated 22nd October 1909: Tripe and cow heels – Smith’s 7 Dam Street, Lichfield have arranged a good supply. All fresh killed English. Special attention given to standing orders.
Sarah Sefton lived in the Old Road and is variously shown on census returns as shopkeeper or provision dealer. She also cooked tripe and sold it in the same way as fish and chips are now sold. George Hackett recounts this story:- Harry Ridley lived down Tuppenhurst Lane and his dad sent him to fetch fourpennyworth of tripe, taking a jug so he could bring back some gravy. Going home along the cut-side, he fell down and spilled the tripe on the towing path. He said: “I picked up the tripe and put it in the jug and filled up with a drop of cut water. Dad said at supper: “It’s gritty this week”.
Kate (Catherine) Conway had been the housekeeper for Bill Flackett, who hailed from Hanley, and who worked at the potbank as a presser. He had married Patience Leabond in 1857 with whom he had a daughter but in the early 1870s they had separated. The 1881 census shows Patience on the Wirral as single but Bill is in Armitage and is shown as still married. The single Catherine Conway is his housekeeper and her five children are shown as boarders. By the time of the 1891 census four more children had been added and the children were still shown as Conway but were known as Flacketts.
Bill died in 1898 and Kate needed money to support her family and as well as working as a charwoman she took over the tripe selling business from Sarah Sefton who died in 1899. Before tripe can be cooked as a meal it first has to be thoroughly cleaned, (known as dressing the tripe). To begin the process the tripe is put in a large pan of cold water and slowly heated to the boil so that all the impurities rise to the surface where they can be skimmed off. With large quantities of tripe this can take quite some time and Kate would not have been standing over it all the time – as this extract from the 7th December 1900 edition of the Lichfield Mercury, which was reporting on the Rugeley County Court, shows:
Kate Conway at Armitage sued Thomas Creed, of the same place, for 5s for tripe stolen by his dog. Plaintiff said she dealt in tripe, and while it was being cleaned defendant’s dog opened the latch of the door, went in, and stole a large piece. The judge said that the defendant was not accountable for his dog’s accomplishments in that direction, and he could not assist the plaintiff. A dog would eat food wherever it could get it, and people ought to take care of their things so that dogs and cats could not get at them. It was only a trumpery matter of 5s. To defendant – you must keep your dog away from eating people’s tripe – Laughter. Judgement for defendant.
So definitely dog food!