Can You Freeze Tripe?

4 minutes

There are several types of tripe that you can buy, and it’s a popular addition to stews, soups, and sausages. It has a distinctive scent and mild flavour, meaning it’s commonly spiced or flavoured with other ingredients. If you’ve bought some tripe for an upcoming recipe, what’s the best way to preserve it?

How to Freeze Tripe

Tripe might not be the first ingredient on your mind when you’re heading to the supermarket, but it’s popularly used in various Asian recipes and delicacies.

If a recipe that you’re preparing calls for tripe, you can buy it and freeze it without any issues.

Here are the steps you need to follow to freeze tripe the right way: 

1. Prepare
   You will need to prepare the tripe before adding it to the freezer. If it has been pre-bleached, you should still take this step. Remove the outer skin and rub the tripe in a thin coating of salt, as this will help to preserve it and neutralise some of its scent.
   
   You can then rinse the tripe in vinegar to remove the salt and other impurities. It’s now ready to use. 
2. Slice
   It’s best to slice up tripe into smaller serving sizes, as this means you can remove what you need from the freezer at any given time. It’s entirely up to you how you prepare the tripe, but the smaller, the better for future use. 
3. Bag Up
   Once sliced, place your tripe into freezer-safe bags. Push out as much air as you can before sealing the bag. 
4. Add to a Container
   Now, place the bag or bags of tripe in an airtight container and affix the lid. This is an important step, as you don’t want the scent of the tripe to affect any of the other ingredients in the freezer. 
5. Label and Freeze
   Write today’s date and the use-by date on the lid of the container and place it in the freezer. Remember, you can freeze tripe for around three months.

3 Tips for Freezing Tripe

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing tripe to have the best results:

Buy Bleached Tripe
Bleached tripe has been pre-prepared and doesn’t smell as potent as unbleached tripe. It’s better for storage, and it will save you a little bit of prep time.

When you buy tripe from the supermarket or butchers, you will find that it’s clearly labelled as bleached or unbleached, making it easy to select the type that you need.

Cook First
If you have boiled or cooked the tripe as part of a recipe, you can still freeze it without any issue by following the steps listed above. The only thing you need to do differently is to ensure that you allow the tripe sufficient cooling time before you package it up and add it to the freezer.

Add Flavour
When you come to prepare tripe, remember that it’s largely tasteless and won’t taste great on its own. Regardless of the recipe that you’re planning to follow, make sure you season or flavour tripe before cooking it, as you will be disappointed with its taste if you don’t do this!

How Long Can You Freeze Tripe?

You can freeze tripe for around three months. This is the case whether you are freezing it raw or cooked, as its state doesn’t affect the freezing time.

Tripe should be good in the fridge for 3-4 days until it needs to be used, so you should only freeze it if you don’t plan on using it within this timeframe.

While you might be tempted to freeze tripe for longer than this, we’d advise you to use it within three months, so its texture remains as expected.

You Can Freeze Tripe for up to 3 Months

How Do You Defrost Tripe?

When it’s time to defrost tripe, simply transfer it from the freezer to the fridge, leaving it in its current packaging. You should never defrost tripe at room temperature, as doing so is likely to cause it to spoil.

Equally, it’s best not to thaw tripe in the microwave as it may affect its texture. So, although it takes a little longer, the only way to defrost tripe safely is to allow it sufficient time to thaw in the fridge.

Can You Refreeze Tripe?

If you have thawed tripe in the fridge, there’s nothing wrong with returning it to the freezer if you don’t end up using it.

However, we’d only recommend doing this once. The ice crystals that form during the freezing process will affect the texture and consistency of the tripe, so you need to make sure you don’t freeze and refreeze it too many times.

Does Tripe Freeze Well?

Generally, tripe freezes really well. You just need to make sure it’s well wrapped and protected from freezer burn, and you shouldn’t notice much difference when you come to thaw and prepare it within a few months of freezing it

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing tripe or tripe in general, then these may help: