Tripe Sour Soup / Ciorba de burta

Directions

Wash well a nice piece of honeycomb tripe, let stand in salt water for 1/2 hour, then wash again.
Now put it into a pot with 2 quarts of water and add one onion sliced, one laurel leaf, a bunch of assorted herbs, salt and pepper to taste, 2 sliced tomatoes, a veal knuckle, one potato and a little thyme and lovage. Cook slowly for 4 hours or until the tripe is tender.
Lift out the tripe and place it on a board. With a sharp knife cut it into thin strips. Let stand Vi hour, then remove the vege¬tables from the liquid.
Place the strips of tripe back into the pot and continue the boiling in the clear liquid a little longer. Put into a large serving soup bowl one egg yolk and one teaspoonful of lemon juice or vinegar for each person you expect to serve. Beat with a fork until light. Now pour the boiling ciorba with the tripe slowly into the egg mixture and stir constantly.
Serve very hot with a green sharp pepper. If you like a sharpei flavor in the ciorba, add to it a few pepper seeds. Dab with butter.