İşkembe

İşkembe çorbası is a tripe soup in the Turkish and some Balkan cuisines. It is often seasoned with vinegar or lemon juice. In the South Slavic languages, this soup is called Shkembe chorba (Cyrillic: Шкембе чорба).

Contents

Etymology

The name is from Persian language shikambeh 'stomach/tripe' + shorba 'thick soup', from shir + ba 'milk broth'. It entered the Slavic languages via Ottoman Turkish.

Variants

In Republic of Macedonia, Skembe chorba (Шкембе чорба) is made of fresh beef or pork tripe cooked with carrots, garlic, onions, parsnip. Then is chopped in small pieces and then thickened by adding flour (запршка). Shkembe chorba is served with mashed garlic in vinegar and home made bread.

In Bulgaria a whole pork, beef or lamb tripe is boiled for few hours, chopped in small pieces, and returned to the broth. The soup is spiced with ground red paprika which is briefly fried (запръжка), and often small quantity of milk is added. In some areas it is Traditionally the soup is served with mashed garlic in vinegar and hot red pepper. There is a variant of the soup with intestines instead of tripe.

The soup was very popular with the working classes until late 1980s, and there were many restaurants serving only shkembe chorba (шкембеджийница, "shkembe-restaurant"). Later they got replaced by fast food restaurants but the soup is still highly regarded, and is part of the menu in any cheap to moderately-priced restaurant. Office workers avoid eating shkembe chorba at lunch, or eat it without adding garlic.

In Serbia, this soup is made of fresh tripe cooked with onions, garlic and paprika. It is usually seasoned with fried bacon and more garlic, sometimes thickened with flour (запршка). Some versions of shkembe chorba are made with milk; garlic, vinegar, and chili peppers are often added as seasoning.

The Greek version is usually called patsás (πατσάς < from Persian pacheh 'shank', (pa+cheh, 'foot/leg+lower'), via Ottoman Turkish), and sometimes skembés (σκεμπές). It may be seasoned with red wine vinegar and garlic (skordostoubi), or thickened with avgolemono. The Greek version sometimes uses calf feet with the tripe.

The Romanian name is ciorbă de burtă, having as a variant ciorbă de ciocănele (soup from chicken legs), similar in preparation and serving. "Ciorba de burta" is often seasoned with vinegar and sauce of crushed garlic mixed with a little bit of oil, called "mujdei". In Romania to make the soup sour (ciorbă) one generally adds a home-made juice called borş (fermented wheat bran).

Hangover remedy

Shkembe chorba is widely believed to be a hangover remedy.

See also

Other tripe soups include: