Tripes à la mode de Caen

In its original form this dish consisted of all four chambers of a beef cattle's stomach, part of the large intestine (this was outlawed in France in 1996),[1] plus the hooves and bones, cut up and placed on a bed of carrots, onions, leeks, garlic, cloves, peppercorns, a bouquet garni, a bottle of cider and a glass of calvados in a tripière (a special earthenware pot for cooking tripe).

Some of the fruit falls to the ground and is eaten by the cattle, along with the rich grasses of the season, imparting a distinctive flavour to the animal.

[4] Sidoine Benoît was a Benedictine monk of the 14th Century at the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, in the Calvados département in the Normandy region of France.

It was the use of cider and apple brandy in food that was Benoît's inspiration and contribution to French cuisine, making the insipid tripe dishes of the monks palatable.

[5] Legend has it that William the Conqueror, Normandy's most famous notable, enjoyed a precursor of this dish, tripe sprinkled with apple juice.