Beef tripe substitutes

The best textural match available in ordinary shops, and it sits in the same bowl of pho anyway. After three to four hours of simmering, tendon turns translucent, slippery and gelatinous, with a soft springy resistance very close to well-cooked honeycomb tripe. It has almost no flavour of its own, exactly like tripe, so it soaks up whatever broth it is in. The difference is that tendon is smoother and more jelly-like where tripe is more rubbery and porous, so it holds less broth in its surface.

Best for

pho, menudo, Chinese braises, soups needing body

Cheap and sold frozen at most Asian markets. It needs longer cooking than tripe, not less.

The same organ from a different animal, so this is the closest true substitute rather than an approximation. Pork stomach is a little thinner and more tender than beef tripe and cooks in about half the time, around 90 minutes rather than three hours. The flavour is slightly sweeter and porkier, noticeable in a clean broth and invisible in a chile-heavy menudo. Clean and blanch it exactly as you would tripe before it goes in the pot.

Best for

menudo, Chinese and Filipino soups, callos, any tripe recipe

Widely available at Asian and Latin markets, often for less than beef tripe.

Firm, dense and slightly chewy, and cheap in most supermarkets, which makes them the most accessible chewy-offal swap. Simmer them 60 to 90 minutes until they yield. They are meatier and considerably more strongly flavoured than tripe, with a distinct dark-poultry, faintly liverish note, so they push the flavour of a clean broth around in a way tripe never does. In a heavily spiced menudo or a Portuguese-style stew that extra savour is welcome.

Best for

spiced stews, menudo, rice dishes, budget cooking

Trim any tough silver membrane before cooking or it stays leathery.

The honest answer for anyone who does not want offal in the pot. You are not replacing tripe's texture, you are making a related soup: shank contributes gelatin so the broth still turns rich and lip-coating, the hominy carries the chile broth, and the finished bowl with oregano, lime and raw onion tastes recognisably of menudo without any of the chew. Anyone who grew up on menudo will spot the difference immediately, but as a soup it stands up well on its own.

Best for

menudo-style soup without offal, pozole, family meals, first-time cooks

This is closer to pozole than to menudo, and calling it that avoids disappointing anyone.

The vegetarian route, and unusually effective because king oyster stems have a genuinely springy, layered bite. Slice the stems into rounds or shred them lengthwise, then sear them hard before they go into the broth, which firms them up and stops them collapsing. They are mildly savoury and slightly sweet rather than neutral, and they soften faster than tripe, so add them in the last 20 minutes rather than at the start.

Best for

vegetarian menudo, vegan pho, chewy texture without meat

Searing first is essential. Mushrooms added raw to a long simmer turn to mush.

Cow skin, sold as kpomo or ponmo in West African markets, is another collagen-heavy chewy cut that behaves much like tripe: it needs long simmering, has little flavour of its own, and ends up soft and gelatinous with a definite bite. It is a touch richer and fattier than tripe and gives the broth even more body. Fresh pork rind, simmered until soft, does something similar.

Best for

West African stews, long-simmered soups, gelatinous broths

Simmer at least two hours. Undercooked skin is unpleasantly rubbery.