one marrow has been eaten by humans since prehistoric times. This is no surprise because bone barrow is full of iron, phosphorous and vitamin A. 100 gram of bone marrow contains 500 calories. And next to all those health benefits it tastes great!
Hyena’s, bears, vultures, wolverines, lions and leopards also love this ‘superfood’. Evolution even helped them to get to the inside of the bones where the bone marrow resides.
But also herbivores practice ‘osteophagy’. Also known as the eating of bones. Porcupines, tortoises, giraffes, grizzly bears, camels and wildebeests are known to eat it now and then to get needed nutrients hard to find in the plants they eat.
Cooked bone marrow bones are not okay to give to dogs by the way; they can leave nasty bone splinters.
Bone marrow in modern times.
rom the middle ages, and specifically the 17th and 18th century bone marrow became almost a trend. It was a delicacy. It was also very popular with the nobility. Usually the cut the marrow bone lengthwise en not horizontal like the rings of bone you see on my pictures. They also often cut them horizontal but left the bones really long, creating towers on your plate.
When you feast on chicken legs and wings it is easy to suck the marrow out of the bones after you are done gnawing the succulent meat off. But with those ‘towers’ this was not possible. To reach the bone marrow in those long bones they had special bone marrow spoons.
Next to the popular bone marrow of the cow people also ate the bone marrow from sheep and goat. In Northern Europe, Northern America and Northern Asia they also ate the bone marrow from the caribou. In China they also ate the marrow of the pig.
After I dug up the giant yard of an old pig farm that was in business from 1530 to 1935 I think people in Western Europe also ate the bone marrow from pigs. The ground and rubbish pits were full of pig bones cut for eating the bone marrow. Since only rich people have their history written down it is possible that the nobels only ate beef bone marrow but the plebs made do with every bone marrow they could get; including those from pigs.
With periods bone marrow bones were really cheap. 15 years ago you often could get them for free at butchers. Nowadays it’s a delicacy again and the price has rissen. Not as expensive as other meats; but still not a budget hack it was in the times it was seen as ‘offal’.
How to prepare bone marrow.
ou might know bone marrow bones from making soup. Classic western soups always contained one. But they also taste great in other soups. Here is some soup inspiration. They are also great to cook in risotto together with the rice. Take them out in the end and serve them as appetizer. You can sprinkle them with some salt, white or black pepper, or lemon juice. You can spread them on some nice fresh bread or toast. Combine them with a salad like for example a parsley and radish salad.
There are several ways to prepare bone marrow:
Cooking. As mentioned above you could cook them in a soup or risotto. But you can also cook them separately like I did. First put some salt on the bone marrow. This prevents the marrow leaving the bone while cooking. Cook them in broth or with broth ingredients. They are ready to eat when they are see through to white (see picture below). Depending on the size this will be 3-5 minutes.
Oven. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Put some salt on the bone marrow. Rub some butter or oil on an oven tray or dish or use some baking paper to put the bones on. Put them in the oven for around 10-20 minutes depending on the size. If they are not cut lengthwise (two long halves) you can turn them halfway through.
BBQ. Put salt on the bone marrow. Wrap the bones in tin foil. Leave them for 10-20 minutes, depending on the size, on the BBQ rack or between the coals of a fire. Turn now and then.
