Beef marrow bones - roasting temp

[Blether]

I stumbled on a source for beef bones, something I'd been looking out for for ages.

- that's a 200g / about 7oz block of butter, supposed to show scale but carelessly cut off, ho hum, by the photographer. The biggest lump must be 4 or 4.5" thick on any dimension.

I want to roast these, spread a couple slices of toast with the marrow hot from the oven, and dedicate the rest to making stock. Roasting temp, anyone ? I trawled past threads and found Fergus Henderson's approach for marrow.

Of course I can pull some marrow out and put the bones back in for more roasting if that's better... but how hot and how long ?

Edited November 1, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Dexter]

Fergus Henderson's marrow recipes are peg simple, and I've enjoyed the results:

450F (about 232C) until the marrow comes just loose in the bone (roughly 20 minutes, frequently a little longer, depending on the size, thickness, etc).

Careful not to overcook it, as the marrow will just melt right out and you'll have lost the best part.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Mark Donnelly]

John Torode in his Mezzo cookbook recommends soaking the bones overnight in iced water to remove any blood.

[JBailey]

Jennifer McLagan's recipe says to use iced, salted water for 12 to 24 hours. The bowl is placed in a refrigerator during the soaking process. She uses 2 tablespoons to a large bowl of salted water. The water is changed some 4 to 6 times, adding the same amount of course salt to each bowl of iced water. Apparently, the bones can be frozen up to 2 months after this.

[JAZ]

I've never found soaking to make any difference at all. Am I missing something?

[Prawncrackers]

From your photo I would say the piece in the bottom right corner is the only one worth roasting for it's marrow. That's the only centre-cut one, but then one is never enough. You need a least two of those for decent portion, save that one till you get some more! The bones look pretty clean too, personally I don't bother soaking it but I'd give them a rinse to remove any bone dust. The other pieces are fine for stock of course.

[mkayahara]

I've never found soaking to make any difference at all. Am I missing something?

I can't imagine soaking makes any difference if the marrow is left in the bone, but if you remove it first, the water you soak it in turns a delightful shade of pink, so I assume it is doing something, even if it's purely aesthetic.

[KatieLoeb]

These bones look different to me. Most of the places I've been served marrow it's either a short squat round bone to scoop out of, or a long bone that's been sawed lengthwise. Am I eating the wrong kind or wrongly prepared marrow?

[Blether]

Right, that's settled, then. 200C it is

Actually the bones are just finishing roasting for stock. I scooped out the marrow after 20 minutes, but my heart wasn't really in it tonight - what i have is still very white & pink except for the outer 1/8" or so that browned to the colour I've come to expect marrow to cook to (from looking at pictures ?). I'm guessing that the little water I put in the roasting tray for the longer stock-bound roasting took the edge off the heat for that 20 minutes and that the marrow is well underdone. There's always a next time.

Katie, I think Prawn nailed it - yes, the only bone piece of mine that gave up any marrow was the one bottom right in the photo.

Edited November 2, 2011 by Blether (log)

[budrichard]

With most of the groceries going to purchasing pre-cut meat already packaged, bones and good marrow bones are just about extinct.

The proper method is to obtain a leg bone sawn in half, roast @ 400F or so until done, you will know when done, soaking not required.

My local store used have leg bones and saw them for me but then they decided that it was too dangerous on the vertical table saw and that was that. Now once in a while in various stores I see knuckle and other various bones for sale but they are not useful as marrow bones. Soon even making stock will become a thing of the past.-Dick

[Mjx]

With most of the groceries going to purchasing pre-cut meat already packaged, bones and good marrow bones are just about extinct.

The proper method is to obtain a leg bone sawn in half, roast @ 400F or so until done, you will know when done, soaking not required.

My local store used have leg bones and saw them for me but then they decided that it was too dangerous on the vertical table saw and that was that. Now once in a while in various stores I see knuckle and other various bones for sale but they are not useful as marrow bones. Soon even making stock will become a thing of the past.-Dick

It's not quite so bad as that.

True, getting this sort of thing in the shops is increasingly difficult, but if you get friendly with a butcher, you can still have him or her request the the odds and ends you want from the slaughter house, and process them yourself (a hacksaw will do the trick on virtually any bone, unless you have a super-pretty kitchen that you don't want to risk trashing).

Or, you can try going to the slaughterhouse yourself: In Denmark, I can't even find suet in the shops, so I go round to the slaughter house, and collect some there when I need to stock up. They don't even charge me (the seem to wonder what I want with this large glob of kind of gross-looking fat), but I always contribute something 'for the Christmas lunch', and they apparently remember that from one year to the next

[budrichard]

I've cut a lot of bones in my day and using a hacksaw is not the best, easiest or cleanest.

I have a large Wusthof bone saw and Wusthof 13" 'Bone Splitter' that would take your arm off. Techniques is to have a straight leg bone, on end, and wack with the 'Bone Splitter'. Small pieces fly everywhere but it works. I just don't frequent slaughter houses and I doubt that they will sell you anything direct in the USA as the bone goes right into the bone meal process and they would have to disrupt the work flow.-Dick

[JAZ]

I scooped out the marrow after 20 minutes, but my heart wasn't really in it tonight - what i have is still very white & pink except for the outer 1/8" or so that browned to the colour I've come to expect marrow to cook to (from looking at pictures ?). I'm guessing that the little water I put in the roasting tray for the longer stock-bound roasting took the edge off the heat for that 20 minutes and that the marrow is well underdone. There's always a next time.

If you have underdone marrow, you can still use it. Treat it as beef butter. For instance, try mashing it with some kind of hard cheese -- Parmigiano works well -- and spreading it on bread, then running under the broiler.

[Blether]

Thanks JAZ, that's great. I have kept the marrow in the pool of hard fat that came out with it (most of the fat went in pastry today, per Dinner!). Softened and cheese-toasted just went on the to-try list.

[eternal]

I tend to always overcook the marrow and it ends up as a grease puddle.

[Kerry Beal]

Look at these beauties I found marked as 'soup/marrow' bones at the local supermarket which has an Italian background. I want to make some beef stock and all I've got right now is some fat left over from a huge brisket I sous vided a few days ago so figured a bit of roasted bone would add some extra flavour - with the bonus of some marrow for me.

Fished the marrow out of a couple, put it on top of a bit of the 55 degree brisket, sprinkled with some gremolata. The remains I scraped out and did what Jaz suggested upstream - added some freshly grated parmesan. I'll pick up a baguette on the way to work tonight and treat the girls to bone marrow toasts. Won't tell them what it is until after they eat it however.