The market · Meat

Bone marrow

The soft fat inside beef shin and thigh bones — rich, beefy and almost buttery when roasted, and the classic finish for sauce bordelaise.

rich · beefy · buttery

What to do with it

Kinds

Canoe-cut
Split lengthways; the easiest to roast and eat.
Cross-cut
In short lengths; for osso buco, stock, or pushing the marrow out whole.

Goes with

Knowing it

Where to buy
Ask the butcher for marrow bones from the shin or thigh, cut to order. They freeze well.
A little history
Fergus Henderson's roast bone marrow and parsley salad, at St. John in London, made it a modern classic.
Worth knowing
Soak the bones overnight in cold salted water to draw out the blood, then roast at 220°C for 15–20 minutes, until the marrow is soft and just pulling from the bone — any longer and it melts away. Something sharp alongside: parsley, shallot, capers, lemon.

More meat