🇨🇿 Czechia and 🇸🇰 Slovakia

DršťkováCzech tripe soup

A thick Czech and Slovak soup of beef (or pork) tripe with a flour-and-lard roux, garlic, caraway, marjoram and sweet paprika.

Origin and history

Dršťková polévka is a standing dish of Czech and Slovak (držková polievka) pubs, where it is served as a filling first course or light meal with bread or a roll. Czech sources call it the soup of railway station restaurants and note that tripe soups thickened with a paprika roux are found across the lands of the former Austria-Hungary. Its meatless twin, made with oyster mushrooms, is a common modern alternative.

Make it at home

Makes: 6 servings
Total time: 1 h
Hands-on: 30 min

Ingredients

Metric US

500 g1.1 lb cooked beef tripe (vařené hovězí dršťky), cut in thin strips 3-4 cm (1 1/2 in) long; for raw tripe see the notes
60 g4 1/2 tbsp lard (or oil)
2 onions (about 250 g / 9 oz), finely chopped
1/2 tsp caraway seeds, crushed
60 g1/2 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp hot paprika, optional
1 tbsp tomato paste, optional
1.5 l6 1/3 cups light beef broth, or the liquid from cooking the tripe, lukewarm
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp dried marjoram
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
rye bread or crusty rolls, to serve

Method

1. Melt the lard in a heavy pot over medium-high heat and fry the onion with the caraway for 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until golden.
2. Lower the heat, sprinkle in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, until it smells nutty and turns light gold.
3. If using tomato paste, stir it in and fry for 30 seconds.
4. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the sweet and hot paprika for half a minute. Paprika scorches on direct heat and turns bitter.
5. Whisk in about 250 ml (1 cup) of the lukewarm broth briskly to make a smooth paste, then a second cupful, then the rest a little at a time, whisking constantly so no lumps form.
6. Return the pot to the heat, add the tripe and half the garlic and bring to the boil.
7. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring from the bottom every few minutes so the flour does not settle and catch. The soup should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
8. Add the rest of the garlic, rub the marjoram between your palms over the pot and simmer for 2 minutes more.
9. Season with pepper and salt (taste first if your broth was salted) and serve hot with rye bread or a crusty roll.

Notes

Total time: 1 h with cooked tripe (about 4 h 30 min from raw).
Tripe: Czech butchers and shops sell beef tripe already cleaned and cooked, which is what most home cooks use. Raw cleaned tripe must be simmered in several changes of water: cover it with cold water, simmer 1 hour, drain, and repeat with fresh water once or twice until it is tender when pinched (3-4 hours in all). The last cooking liquid makes a good broth for the soup. Cut the tripe into strips only after it is cooked.
Character: dršťková should be thick, deep red from paprika and strongly scented with marjoram and garlic. Some cooks add black pepper or crushed caraway only, some a spoonful of tomato paste; both are traditional.
Pork tripe is used in some households instead of beef.
Mushroom version: oyster mushrooms or wood ear mushrooms cut in strips are cooked the same way for a meatless soup that imitates the texture of tripe (Czech cooks call it hlívová dršťková). Simmer the mushrooms for only 10-15 minutes.
Related: Polish flaki is a clear-broth tripe soup with root vegetables and nutmeg, and Romanian ciorbă de burtă is soured with vinegar and finished with sour cream and egg yolk. Dršťkový perkelt, tripe in paprika sauce with dumplings, is a main course, not a soup.
Make-ahead: the soup keeps 4-5 days in the fridge and freezes well. It thickens overnight; loosen with a little water when reheating.

Adapted from Cook Like Czechs, "Beef Tripe Soup (Dršťková polévka)" and Stanislav Slavík (Hotel Skanzen, Modrá), "Silná dršťková polévka", in Právo / Novinky.cz.