The tripe -callos- is one of the main dishes of Madrid’s cuisine, and one of the favorites of its inhabitants. They are prepared with beef casings and it is difficult to find any establishment in Madrid that does not offer them, either as tapa or as part of a menu. The tradition says that you have to serve them in a clay dish, along with slices of chorizo, blood sausage and ham.
As so many other traditions , they have a long history. Its origin is not known with certainty, but some people date its origin in the XV century, in the book “art cisoria” of Enrique de Villena, where already wrote about the ingredients and forms to cook this dish.
There are also recipes dating from the late sixteenth century to which the famous writer Mateo Alemán makes reference in his book “Guzman de Alfarache”, referring to them as: “little rolls made of the guts, with something of the belly tripe”. It is precisely at he end of this century where the dish reaches its maximum splendor, and hundreds of people eat them daily in the Cava Baja, the Mercado de la Cebada or the Mercado de San Miguel.
In 1607, Domingo Hernández de Maceras presented a recipe for tripe. Already in the nineteenth century the final takeoff of this dish takes place, when the most important restaurants in Madrid include it in their menus among all kinds of delicacies.
As a curiosity, in addition to several variants of the dish between different Spanish regions, they also are served in ither countries. In France they are cooked “at Caen’s style , or in Rome in the neighborhood of Trastevere, they are served with cheese under the name of trippa.
In any case, the best thing to do it is to try them. And we assure you that what we do in El Anciano Rey are among the best.