Long-simmered beef tripe in a rich beef-bone broth, finished with garlic-vinegar tempering, lovage, and a vigorous swirl of sour cream and egg yolk that thickens the soup to a velvet body. Served with chopped garlic, hot chili, and bread. The hangover-curing Romanian classic and the bus-station-restaurant test of any town.
Ciorbă de burtă is a Wallachian working-class dish that became a beloved national standard during 20th-century industrialization, served in traditional restaurants and as the post-celebration soup after big weddings and feasts. The dish has Ottoman roots in işkembe çorbası (Turkish tripe soup) and reached Romania through the Balkans, but the Romanian version is distinguished by lovage, the egg-yolk-sour-cream temper, and the obligatory garlic-vinegar finish on the table. It belongs to the same family as ciorbă de ciocănele (pig's-leg soup), both relying on long-simmered bones for a collagen-rich body.
Spoon brings up an opal-white broth thickened to a silky body by the egg-yolk-sour-cream temper. Tripe pieces are tender — chewable without effort, no rubber resistance. Pop of garlic-vinegar hits second, lovage's celery-pine third. Diners add their own garlic-vinegar and chili at the table. With a slice of fresh bread torn into the bowl, it's the breakfast Romanian shift-workers swear by.
3-4 hours of bone-broth simmer is required to convert tripe's tough connective tissue into soft, gelatinous strands. Tempering the egg yolk + sour cream with hot broth before adding to the pot is critical — direct addition curdles the egg into scrambled-egg lumps. The garlic-vinegar finish does two things: balances the rich body with acid, and the garlic's allicin is partially preserved (not cooked away) for its sharp punch.
Variations
Moldavian version adds a touch of hot paprika. Bucharest classic is the lighter, more vinegar-forward style. Cooks who want extra body add a calf's foot or beef trotter for collagen. Restaurants in tourist Bucharest occasionally serve a deboned, milder version that purists reject as 'not real burtă'.
On the Palate
Where Ciorbă de Burtă sits in the Romanian flavor cloud
Two tempers make or break this soup. Whisk the egg yolks and sour cream with hot broth before streaming them back off the heat, or they scramble into lumps. And stir the smashed garlic-vinegar in at the very end so its raw allicin punch survives instead of cooking away.
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 30 min active + 3 hours 30 min waiting
- 115 min
Clean 1 kg beef tripe: scrub with coarse salt, rinse, blanch in boiling water 10 min, drain, scrape any membrane.
- 212 min
Cover blanched tripe with 3 L cold water in a large pot. Add 1 kg beef bones + 1 carrot + 1 celery root chunk + 1 parsley root + 1 whole onion. Boil, skim foam.
- 3210 min
Simmer gently 3-4 hours, partially covered, until tripe is fork-tender and broth is rich.
Watch outThe tripe is done when a fork pierces it easily and it feels soft and yielding, not springy.
- 48 min
Lift tripe out; cut into 4 cm × 1 cm strips. Strain broth into a clean pot, discard bones and vegetables.
- 54 min
Bring broth to gentle simmer. Add tripe strips back, plus 1 tsp salt.
- 66 min
Garlic-vinegar temper: smash 8 garlic cloves with 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper into a paste. Stir in 100 ml white wine vinegar and 100 ml of the hot broth. Strain into soup.
- 75 min
Egg-yolk-cream temper: whisk 3 egg yolks with 200 ml sour cream + 100 ml of the hot broth (slowly, to prevent scrambling). Slowly stream back into soup, off the heat, whisking.
Watch outTemper the yolk-cream slowly with hot broth — the mixture should stay smooth and silky, never grainy or flecked.
- 83 min
Finish: stir in 3 tbsp chopped lovage (or parsley if no lovage). Adjust salt. Serve with extra garlic vinegar, hot chili, and bread on the side.
Watch outStir the garlic-vinegar in off the heat right before serving so its sharp raw bite stays alive.
