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
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.
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.