Beef tripe stewed slowly with chorizo, morcilla and jamón in a thick, sticky, pimentón-red sauce.
What makes it callos a la madrileña
Beef tripe, cleaned and cut into squares.
Chorizo, morcilla and jamón.
A thick sauce, sticky with gelatine and red with pimentón.
Where it comes from
Tripe has been cheap food in Madrid for centuries, cooked in its taverns and sold by its tripe-sellers. The Madrid way adds pimentón and cured sausages, and slow cooking with a pig's trotter or snout gives the sauce its well-known stickiness.
It's better the day after, and in winter many bars serve it as a tapa in small earthenware dishes.