More True Confessions: Eating the bones

[lullyloo]

I'm curious how serious people here are with their bones (chicken, lamb, pork, beef, fish - if it once breathed, I want to know!) I learned from my father who was very serious about stripping them bare, and then some. He sat at the table long after the rest of us were finished and (when possible) broke down the bones into manageable pieces, put the whole piece in his mouth and did his work. When he was finished, the bones on his plate were as clean as if they'd been sitting in the desert for a week. When he could, he ate them or sucked the marrow out. This was actually a very dainty, tidy process; he wasn't a "picker"; didn't get gunk all over his hands or fingernails or become savage. In the privacy of my own home, I get pretty serious about cleaning my bones. Probably not as delicate as my father or as thorough, but he did teach me that often the bones are the best part. There is always a lot more meat there than you think (and some other interesting things, too), and I think it goes with my preoccupation with not wasting anything. My boyfriend was not a good bone cleaner, and it killed me to see perfectly good tidbits getting thrown in the trash, so I often cleaned his bones too.

What are your habits, methods, grievances, etc?

[mhadam]

mmmm...bones. Nothing better than biting into a chicken bone after finsihing off a big bowl of soup. Or gnawing on rib bones after they were braised or roasted or grilled and are oh so flavorful.

My favorite part of a chicken leg bone is the top part of gristle and connective tissue. Yum Yum Yum.

I will bite into the bone to split it and suck out all those yummy juices.

Very barbic but very good.

[CathyL]

Ha. I can make an entire meal out of what my husband leaves on the bone. (Of course, this is after I've already eaten an entire meal.)

My favorite is the inter-rib meat on a double rib lamb chop. Unfrenched, please.

[Stone]

My favorite part of a chicken leg bone is the top part of gristle and connective tissue. Yum Yum Yum.

Wow. When I accidentally bite into the gristle at the top of a chicken leg (or any other gristle), my choke reflex goes off big time. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

[Fat Guy]

I'm with Dstone. Gristle is not for me. I do think the meat right next to the bone is often the best, and I like marrow very much, but I don't enjoy eating actual gristle, sinew, bone, feathers, etc.

[butch]

Can't stand any sort of connective tissue. Got ill once watching someone eat beef tendons in a S.F. Chinatown restaurant.

[mhadam]

but I don't enjoy eating actual gristle, sinew, bone, feathers, etc.

I'm not a feather fan either. But the gristle...I don't know what it is...my frugal nature of not wanting to waste anything or the simple pleasure of having a clean plate and bones?

Even as a child I would take my parents' bones and gnaw the top off to much their dismay

[lullyloo]

I like it too, mhadam. And the skin at the bottom of the leg bone for that matter.

[mhadam]

I like it too, mhadam.    And the skin at the bottom of the leg bone for that matter.

Yes! Someone who understands.

And for that matter any skin on meat. I don't understand the trend of skinless/boneless meat. There is so much flavor from the bone that seeps into the meat (and vice versa)

Not really a bone issue but something I quite enjoy. Fat! A nice piece of fat from a steak or prime rib. The minute you get it in your mouth it starts to melt and tastes llike butter...mmmmm......

[lullyloo]

Mmmm, fat. Or from a pork chop. (Most people cut it off and leave it in a little pile, but I like to eat a piece or two.) Or a pork roast or ham right out of the oven, crisp on the edges. How about the Pope's hat (is that what it's called?) from the chicken. Crispy skin and fat with just a little meat. Delish.

[mhadam]

mmm...crispy ham bits....

or duck fat...perfect to spread a piece of polish rye with a sprinkle of salt

or hot wings...the perfect bite size bones to nosh on

[lullyloo]

Yes, wings! I had almost forgotten them. If they're cooked well, the very tips of the wings are crispy/crunchy and quite edible.

[mhadam]

*happy sigh* finally someone who understands

though it seems no one else likes fat or bones or strange normally inedible parts of animals...

[lullyloo]

I guess not! With all the intestines and offal and stomachs and tongues people eat around here, I thought, bones would be a given.

[CathyL]

Mmmm, fat.  Or from a pork chop.  (Most people cut it off and leave it in a little pile, but I like to eat a piece or two.)  Or a pork roast or ham right out of the oven, crisp on the edges.  How about the Pope's hat (is that what it's called?) from the chicken.  Crispy skin and fat with just a little meat.    Delish.

Pope's nose. My favorite part of the bird, as long as it's crispy.

I like wing tips too. And, in the words of an old Steve Goodman song, fat is where it's at. I much prefer it crunchy to soft, though. Cracklings, gribbenes, chicharrones...

[ShawtyCat]

Love bones! Chicken bones from soup or stew. Pork neckbones. I loooooovvvvveeeee pork neckbones. And ribs.

Forgot: Pig feet and pig tail in soup or souse. Damn...i gotta end it here or ill go on all day.

[Stephanie]

I am not really all that into bones. I think this is because when I was growing up, my father would seize any bones that had any trace of meat of them--I think he considered them his "right." Even today, only he gets to pick the bones clean from the carcass of the Thanksgiving/Passover turkey.

Now fat, on the other hand, is a wonderful thing. Never could resist the really crunchy fries or chicken skin. Whenever we had chicken, Mom would always leave the skin on the plate and Dad & I would eagerly take it. Hmmm.....maybe that would explain how she stayed thin.

[wawairis]

Yes, wings! I had almost forgotten them.  If they're cooked well, the very tips of the wings are crispy/crunchy and quite edible.

I love nice crispy wing tips. Unfortunately a lot of people remove them. I've been known to eat whole tips, meat and all. I can polish off a plate of tips with no problem!

[mhadam]

Forgot:  Pig feet and pig tail in soup or souse.  Damn...i gotta end it here or ill go on all day. 

mmm..pickled pigs feet with a horseradish and mayo sauce on the side.....yum

[wawairis]

Pork neckbones.   I loooooovvvvveeeee pork neckbones.  And ribs.

Gee, I forgot about pork neck bones. I usually do them with black beans and onions. Yummy!

[mhadam]

I'd have to say of neck bones, duck is my favorite.

[Stone]

Do you all actually eat the bone, or just pick the meat off it and suck out the marrow?

[mhadam]

I eat the meat/gristle/fat from the bone and gnaw on the bone to get the juices and marrow.

But with a properly cooked neck bone or wing both I can actually chew it to a pulp and eat it.

Never had a problem with it. And of course this is done in the privacy of my home.

[Akiko]

I feel like I'm at an AA meeting... "hello, my name is Akiko and I eat bones"

I thought this was a trait shared only by members of my family. I have to admit, I love cartilage, the texture and the flavour that you can get from chewing and sucking on bones, it really is great. I mean, wouldn't everyone agree that flavour is the reason you grill meat on the bone, or add the bones to stock, or eat marrowbone salad?

But I especially love wings that have been drenched in sauce and when that sauce has permeated the nooks and crannies in the bones... that's the best.

There was this heavenly place situated in a very unsafe area in Chicago (cabrini green) called Farmer Brown's. Farmer Brown's made mythically amazing chicken wings (it was their sauce, their amazing barbecue sauce) and ribs and rib tips... Picture a takeout place where all the workers are behind bulletproof glass, there are at least two security cameras pointing in different directions so no corner is unrecorded, and a long line of customers going out the door and around the side of the building. Most of the people in the line were from the projects, or at least lived in the area - big, rough and tough, street ready, proudly displaying scars on their arms and faces.... and two little asian chicks from the suburbs (my sister and I) trying to pretend like they fit in and are completely comfortable in line, just so we could get a couple of orders... because the wings and sauce were THAT good, but also so we could suck all the sauce out of the bones.

Unfortunately Farmer Brown's has disappeared, and try as I might, I can't find out what happened to them.

By the way, my sister will go so far as to eye the pile of bones on someone ELSE's plate and if she feels comfortable enough, will ask you if you are done with them so she can clean them off!

I won't go that far...

[John Whiting]

There's an inbred yearning for fat that goes back to those pre-agricultural days when the human diet consisted of meat, fish, nuts and berries. (Agriculture only covers the last 20,000 years.) In those hungry days, animal and fish fat was the quickest source of energy and the quickest relief from the pangs of hunger. Fat was also the first part of the creature to go off, and so it was devoured in a frenzy of greedy self-indulgence.

I can relate to that!