Menudo: northern tripe broth with guajillo and hominy

What is it?

Menudo is one of the most representative broths of northern Mexico: clean beef tripe simmered for hours with hominy (cacahuazintle), chile guajillo, garlic, onion and oregano. The result is a thick, orange and aromatic broth served with lime, chopped onion, coriander, ground dried oregano and flour or maize tortillas. It is the quintessential Sunday dish in Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon, where it is eaten upon waking as a restorative breakfast and as a famous hangover cure. Each state has its variant: the Sonoran version includes beef trotter, the Chihuahuan adds chile colorado, the Sinaloan includes whole nixtamal. Larousse Cocina distinguishes it from the capital-city menudo (called pancita in Mexico City) by the presence of hominy, which is absent in the central version.

Origin and history

Menudo has roots that intertwine the world of pre-Hispanic cocido and the peninsular Spanish cocido. Beef tripe, the main ingredient, arrived with cattle after the conquest in the 16th century. Mestizo cooks combined this product, scorned by the colonisers 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 it was used to designate the offal and small parts of an animal. Pulso SLP and the magazine Animal Gourmet document that by the 19th century menudo was already a popular dish in the markets of the Mexican north, associated with ranch life and slaughter days. Dona Angela on her channel De Mi Rancho a Tu Cocina records the traditional recipe in its Potosi version with maize. The consolidation of menudo as a Sunday northern breakfast occurs at the beginning of the 20th century, when ranchers and railway workers adopted it as a strong weekend meal.

Characteristic ingredients

Beef tripe is made up of three distinct parts: the book, the abomasum and the honeycomb. Each contributes 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 simmered between three and five hours until soft. Hominy (cacahuazintle) is a large-grained maize that has been nixtamalised and dehulled so that it bursts when cooked. Chile guajillo, dried, glossy and of moderate heat, is rehydrated, blended with garlic and strained to give the broth its characteristic orange colour. The oregano used is Mexican (Lippia graveolens), more aniseed-like than the Mediterranean variety. 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 in much of northern Mexico and the US Southwest. In Hermosillo, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua or Monterrey, menuderias open at dawn and fill with families after mass or a long night. It is famous as a hangover remedy because of its high content of collagen, gelatin 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 Mexican diaspora has turned it into an icon. In Aguascalientes and Zacatecas there is a 'Menudo Fair' and in Cuauhtemoc, 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 Michoacan, menudo is part of the northern corpus that sustains regional diversity. Today it appears on the menus of chefs such as Aaron Sanchez 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, chile guajillo and oregano, served with flour tortillas. Pancita is the central-Mexican version (Mexico City, Hidalgo, State of Mexico): the same tripe broth but without hominy, seasoned with epazote and chile guajillo or ancho. 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 background of chile guajillo, mild, sweet and slightly smoky heat. Mexican oregano contributes a herbal aniseed touch, hominy gives chewable texture and notes of cooked maize. Lime and raw onion on serving lift the flavours. It is comforting and spiced without being excessively spicy.

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 chile piquin or dried chile de arbol. In the north it is eaten with hot flour tortilla; in central Mexico with maize tortilla. It is Sunday or post-party breakfast.

Where is menudo originally from?

It is native to northern Mexico, with strong centres in Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon. The combination of beef tripe (a European ingredient) with hominy (a pre-Hispanic ingredient) and chile guajillo places it as a colonial mestizo dish. It became popular in the 19th century in ranch life and today is one of the dishes most associated with the Mexican diaspora in the United States.