Menudo: what it is, how to make it and when it's eaten

What is it?

Menudo is one of the most representative broths of northern Mexico: cleaned beef tripe, boiled for hours with hominy (cacahuazintle maize), guajillo chilli, garlic, onion and oregano. The result is a thick, orange, aromatic broth served with lime, chopped onion, coriander, ground dried oregano and flour or maize tortillas. It is the Sunday dish par excellence in Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Coahuila and Nuevo León, where it is eaten on waking as a restorative breakfast and as a celebrated hangover cure. Each state has its variant: the Sonoran one carries beef trotter, the Chihuahuan one adds red chilli, the Sinaloan one includes whole nixtamal. Larousse Cocina distinguishes it from the Mexico City menudo (called pancita in CDMX) by the presence of hominy, absent in the central version.

Origin and history

Menudo has roots that intertwine the world of the pre-Hispanic stew and the Spanish peninsular cocido. Beef tripe, the main ingredient, arrived with cattle after the conquest in the sixteenth century. Mestizo cooks combined this ingredient —disdained by the colonists as 'offal'— with hominy already cooked in the pre-Hispanic style and with dried chillies from the highlands. The name 'menudo' comes from old Spanish, where the offal and small parts of an animal were so called. Pulso SLP and the magazine Animal Gourmet document that by the nineteenth century menudo was already a popular dish in the markets of northern Mexico, associated with ranch life and slaughter days. Doña Ángela on her channel De Mi Rancho a Tu Cocina records the traditional recipe in its San Luis Potosí version with maize. The consolidation of menudo as a northern Sunday breakfast occurs in the early twentieth century, when ranchers and railway workers adopted it as a hearty weekend meal.

Characteristic ingredients

Beef tripe is made up of three distinct parts: the book (omasum), the reed (abomasum) and the honeycomb. Each provides a different texture —the honeycomb is spongier and absorbs flavour, the book is firmer. Before cooking, it is cleaned with lime, coarse salt and sometimes bicarbonate to eliminate odours. It is boiled for between three and five hours until tender. The hominy (cacahuazintle) is large-grained maize that has been nixtamalised and dehulled so that it bursts when cooked. The guajillo chilli —dried, shiny and of moderate heat— is rehydrated, ground with garlic and strained to give the broth its characteristic orange colour. The oregano used is Mexican (Lippia graveolens), more anise-like than the Mediterranean kind. The regional variants add beef trotter in Sonora, marrow bone in Chihuahua or jiotilla in Sinaloa. In the north it is served with flour tortillas; in the south, with maize tortillas.

Cultural significance

Menudo is a Sunday ritual across much of northern Mexico and the south-western United States. In Hermosillo, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua or Monterrey, the menuderías open at dawn and fill with families after Mass or a long night. It is famous as a hangover remedy for its high content of collagen, gelatine and spices. The American Heart Association notes that menudo is one of the most recognised Mexican dishes in California, Arizona and Texas, where the northern diaspora has made it an icon. In Aguascalientes and Zacatecas there is a 'Menudo Fair' and in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, an annual festival is held. Traditional Mexican gastronomy was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2010, and although the nomination focuses on Michoacán, menudo is part of the northern corpus that sustains regional diversity. Today it appears on the menus of chefs such as Aarón Sánchez and Pati Jinich as an example of northern cuisine.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between menudo and pancita?

Menudo is the northern version: beef tripe broth with hominy, guajillo chilli and oregano, served with flour tortilla. Pancita is the central Mexican version (CDMX, Hidalgo, State of Mexico): the same tripe broth but without hominy, seasoned with epazote and guajillo or ancho chilli. The presence of hominy defines menudo.

What does menudo taste like?

It tastes of deep, gelatinous beef broth from the collagen of the tripe, with an orange undertone of guajillo chilli —mild, sweet and slightly smoky heat. Mexican oregano provides an anise-like herbal touch, the hominy gives a chewy texture and notes of cooked maize. The lime and raw onion when served lift the flavours. It is comforting and spiced without being excessively hot.

How is menudo served?

It is served very hot in a large deep bowl with the tripe cut into squares, the hominy and the red broth. It is accompanied to taste with lime, finely chopped white onion, coriander, ground dried oregano and dried piquín or árbol chilli. In the north it is eaten with hot flour tortilla; in the centre with maize tortilla. It is a Sunday or post-party breakfast.

Where does menudo come from?

It is native to northern Mexico, with strong focuses in Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Coahuila and Nuevo León. The combination of beef tripe (a European ingredient) with hominy (a pre-Hispanic ingredient) and guajillo chilli places it as a colonial mestizo dish. It became popular in the nineteenth century in ranch life and today is one of the dishes most identified with the Mexican diaspora in the United States.