One of the most treasured things that I gotten in relationship of a Latino family was the ability to open up to culture that was very foreign to me. I find it fascinating that two families can grow up in the same geographic area and relative socioeconomic level and yet have experiences that are extremely foreign.

The older I get the more I realize this is more common with ethnic families. They have largely embraced the American experience while retaining elements that are important to the original culture. I suppose that I cannot speak in ultimate authority, but I have seen examples in this family for sure. Speaking outside of food traditions for the moment, there is something called Curanderismo or white magic. I am not going to go any deeper than surface level but there is a technique for solving an ear ache or taking away bad dreams.

I find that there is a lot of superstition, most of which I don’t think there is a whiff of science or logic but this one makes some sense, the cure for a hangover. When my wife and I were dating, I was enamored by so many new experiences. One of them was for young families to stay out late dancing, drinking and socializing. Then, after the social outing you would cap off the night (or morning) with soup called menudo.

On first blush, this is a fairly simple composition of ingredients. The primary ingredients are tripe, water, garlic, oregano, salt and chili powder. Some people like some variants that include hominy and pigs feet. Sound good yet? The work is in the prep and the timing because there is a fair amount of those two things.

Having made this a number of times, I would not call it exactly inexpensive. At seven dollars a pound for tripe, buying 15 pounds the price starts to add up. These are big pots, so it is typically made at 10 gallons at a time. But, let’s get into it.

Tripe is most often bought frozen. It is a beef byproduct that is cleaned and fresh frozen in blocks. Most supermarkets will cut these blocks on the bandsaw in smaller pieces but they are never small enough to use. So, these need to be thawed out plenty of time, like overnight before you need to start cooking.

I add salt and about a head of garlic for about five pounds of tripe and enough water to start boiling down the trip. If you use pigs feet, this is also the time to add them. What these do to the soup is contribute collagen for thickening and this soup will end up solid at room temperature when done right. One foot per 10 pounds of tripe is about right. I didn’t want to spring for a bunch of pigs feet, but I did use some smoked ham hock which I already had.

Now, what I have done is put this pot on overnight. This time I added the menudo mix which is oregano and chili flakes along with salt and let it go. By the time I woke up in the morning there was 1/2 an inch of fat on the top of the liquid and the tripe was boiled down to half of its size. I say this so that you are careful about how much additional water is added. I used three quarts initially but if I had to do over again, I would have done more tripe and less water.

I was serving this around dinner time, normally it would be late breakfast time so you may need to get up early to get the seasoning done. I used 25 dried guajillo chilies to rehydrate and make a paste. That happened to be all I had, it probably needed double that amount for this batch. If you don’t have enough which is frequently the case, you can use chili powder to help out. Keep tasting because you want the broth to have body.

Hominy is a slightly controversial ingredient. In Tex-Mex fashion, it is used. My wife likes it so I try to do a 50/50 tripe to hominy ratio. In Mexico, there would be no hominy added. Keep tasting you may need salt, chili and garlic.

Serve with corn tortillas, chopped onion, limes (my wife likes lemons), extra menudo mix and chili for added spice. Coffee or Coke is the best pairing for drinks and eat three bowls. That will cure your hangover.

I will be honest, I don’t love it. It tastes fine and I am good with it every couple of months but I don’t crave it. What I do appreciate is keeping the tradition alive. I also appreciate the waves of people enjoying the food and the camaraderie. I also like being the white guy that makes the best menudo and it makes my wife happy. So, once a year or so I will do it again just for the heck of it.

End Your Programming Routine: Yesterday was the two month anniversary of my father-in-law’s death. This was an homage to him as the hominy and the menudo seasoning was his when we cleaned out the pantry. I made it for my wife who returned home from Texas over the weekend who loves it. His passing still weighs heavy on her heart. We really didn’t have a hangover in a traditional sense, but in a small way hopefully this helps with the figurative one.