30 years ago, while still dating my future wife while finishing up my degree at UVa, I decided to make a special dinner for us. I had gotten Jeff Smith's (Frugal Gourmet) cookbook as a present, and it contained a recipe for 'Pepper Pot Soup' - which supposedly was created by George Washington's cooks while at Valley Forge. Primary ingredient - beef tripe. I knew what 'tripe' was (stomach lining) but had never dealt with it. The short version of the story is that I did not adequately prep/clean the tripe and the resulting soup was like a giant bowl of feces. We threw it all out.
It's taken all this time before I decided to give it another try, while the wife is in Michigan. This time, I scrubbed both sides of the tripe with rock salt, soaked it in white vinegar, boiled it for 10 minutes, and rinsed it with cold water 3-4 times. In addition to cubed tripe, the soup contained sauteed bacon, beef and vegetable stock, and vegetables to include freshy parsley and thyme, leeks, potatoes, celery, green pepper seasoned with salt, pepper, some ground cloves, and red pepper flakes.
It was really really good this time