Bone Marrow
There are a lot of things I’ve done that I swore I never would, and while I find them all to be generally naughtily enjoyable, none is so satisfying, so deeply comforting as eating meat.
I was a vegetarian for seven years, and during that time, I ate tofu, wrote impassioned pieces on both the benefits of vegetarianism and the cruelties of animal consumption, protested foie gras and even worked at PETA.
When I made the decision to really engage in the culinary world, I began eating meat again – slowly at first, and then with increasing hunger and greed. I went from picking at chicken breasts to demanding that piece of bacon (the fattiest), that cut of venison (the juiciest) that lamb chop (the biggest). There was something so primal and wholly satisfying about eating not just meat, but offal as well, and I wanted it on my plate, in my hands, in my mouth.
Last night, when I walked into class at the French Culinary Institute, I found a roasting pan of marrow bones waiting. My instructor had ordered them at my request – I wanted to prepare and serve them for our class buffet this Saturday. They were thick and heavy, caked with detritus, blood, sinew and meat. They looked delicious.
After simmering them and extracting the marrow, I cleaned them with my knife, scraping down the bone until they gleamed clean milky-white. It was sweltering in the kitchen, and I was working furiously to prepare them all. My cheeks blushed a brilliant shade of pink, prompting a classmate to ask if I felt all right.
I brushed a fringe of stray hair off my forehead with my wrist. “I’m great,” I said with a smile. “It’s just hot and these bones are very dirty.”
Roasted Marrow Bones
- 10-12 marrow bones
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 1 cup parsley leaves
- 2-3 shallots
- Juice of 3-4 lemons
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Coarse salt
- Panko bread crumbs, toasted
Soak the bones in cold, very salty water for 20 minutes to degorge them. Remove, place in a large pot and cover with clean salted cold water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil as quickly as possible (a slow boil will leach out too much fat). Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove a bone and shock it in an ice bath; attempt to remove the marrow. If it slides out easily, shock the rest of the bones. If not, give them a minute more in the hot water.
To remove the marrow, run a small paring knife around the bone and tip it upside down. It should fall right out. Keep the extracted marrow in a bowl of cold water while you scrape at the bones to clean them (this is for presentation purposes, of course.) Place the bone on a cutting board and run the knife over the sinews, scraping away at the debris until it comes away.
Remove the marrow from the water and place in a food processor. Pulse until very finely chopped, then add a bit of olive oil – just a bit – until the marrow emulsifies. (It will look like creamy butter; indeed, Derek observed that marrow is “God’s butter,” whatever that means), then fold in the shallots (chopped finely, then sweated in oil), parsley (also), capers (also), and salt and lemon juice to taste.
Put the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe back into the bones. Top with bread crumbs and roast in a hot (450-ish) oven until the marrow is hot and oozing. To serve, scoop the marrow out and slather over extra bread.