Dean & DeLuca today, at $2 lb. I resisted because I'm dieting, but I was very tempted.

It's my understanding that the marrow has the same number of calories as the fat. Anything that luscious has to be packed with calories.

But they're good calories!

You won't get an argument from me.

When you find special bones at a good price, the calorie count is negotiable. Bones tonight; salad tomorrow. No?

I should have gotten them, I guess. I don't have a cholesterol check for another month. Maybe I'll try to swing by tomorrow, unless another MF-er has already cleaned out the supply.

But, do I remember correctly, Voyager, that you have a set of marrow spoons? I don't.

Buy enough for the two of us as well, and I'll bring mine.

Why worry? The classic parsley salad that often accompanies them will take care of anything bad.

I have demitasse spoons! If I get a chance, I'll go back tomorrow. You only live once.

Went back today and bought them for tomorrow.

I don't recall seeing it. Please post.

I think I saw a bunch at Whole Foods, Union Square recently. Jefferson Market are almost certain to have them, I'd hazard.

The surprise was finding them at such a low price ($2 lb.) at Dean & DeLuca.

You can also get all the marrow bones you want for about $0.50/lb at the chinese butchers on East Broadway. Probably not good for marrow sashimi.

Are the rich getting a little more adventurous? There were also short ribs for sale.

I expect to see them at Dean & Deluca. They have had them for years. They have good duck confit too, some days, at around seven bucks apiece.

You must be there on days when I'm not. I have seen the duck confit in the past.

I believe both of you, but I don't know how I could have missed them.

the local safeway here sells beef marrow bones for even less than $2/lb.

I'm not surprised. I'm sure that $2 lb. is very expensive for marrow bones.

Maybe I'm nuts but I'd really want an EXCELLENT source for bone marrow. It should be true for all meat but marrow in particular. I have a real fear of mad cow. I admit it might be irrational.

The thought crossed my mind, but, hey, something's gonna get you in the end.

So I'm nuts. I still won't eat Altoids because they are a bi-product of British beef. But I'm really pretty!

Just to complete the thought, for anyone who may not have seen the supper thread...I did make the marrow bones for dinner the other day:

Roasted beef marrow bones with parsley salad, Balthazar bread (a toast to Fergus Henderson)
Watercress, beet, walnut and orange salad, topped with goat cheese (a la Judy Rodgers, but with orange added)
Trimbach Pinot Noir 1997

I roasted the bones for about 15 minutes at 450 F. They could have taken a couple of more minutes. Henderson calls for 20 minutes for 3-inch bones and mine are more like 2-inches, so I reduced the time, even though the cooking probably depends more on the thickness of the bone than it does on the height. There were four bones each rather than three, since they were shorter than specified in the recipe. I followed Henderson's suggestion to spread the marrow on the bread, top it with a little parsley salad and sprinkle with a few grains of fleur de sel.

The wine had been a hostess gift from another MF-er. It was delicious, and perfect with the meal.

I've said elsewhere that I often like to add some citrus to a green salad served alongside or following a fatty or salty dish.

I've had the dish at St. John and I must say that my rendition was no worse. To be sure, there is no way to screw this up unless you overcook the bones so badly that the marrow completely dissolves and runs out.

lippy, inspired by your posts i have also purchased some beef marrow bones and am planning to prepare them tonight as you describe above. one question: most recipes i've seen for pho, which call for beef marrow bones, have you boil the marrow bones once and then throw away the water before proceeding with them. i've assumed this is because they need to be de-odorized or some such before being used in a stock. is any such care needed for the recipe above or will a simple rinse and dry prior to roasting be enough?

edit: following the sfgate link which includes henderson's recipe, i see i need to soak them for about 8 hours first. no marrow for dinner tonight.

I suspect the pre-boil is to eliminate the scum that floats to the top whenever you boil bones (denatured blood, I'd guess). If so, it's purely cosmetic and not necessary when you're roasting.

The pre-boil also helps to soften and loosen the cartilage and surface debris on the bones so that you can scrape them down to a pristine white, if you're committed to such "company's coming" cosmetics. A generally unnecessary step.

okay, this marrow thing has turned out an utter fiasco. there were 3 bones--didn't look to have a whole lot of marrow to me, but i've never seen beef marrow bones before (only goat) and so thought little of it. they were soaked and cleaned, and popped in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes. took 'em out to find that indeed there didn't seem to be very much marrow at all. so little, in fact, that i turned them over wondering if i'd had them the wrong way up--nope. one of the bones had about 1/4 tspn of marrow in it, and that was it. so, what did i screw up? or did i just have the wrong kind of bones?

here's a picture, coming out of the oven:


as you can see, i didn't bother trimming the edges of the bones.

not an entire loss since the roasted bones can still be used for stock, but i am quite puzzled. feel free to mock as you explain.

Small bones. Looks like you just melted the marrow out from too long at too high a temp.

they're not particularly small bones--they look smaller in the cropped picture. each of those suckers was about 3-4 inches across at the widest point.

how much marrow does a typical bone yield?

There should have been at least a tablespoonful of marrow in each bone, assuming they were about 3" long. Did the bones look bony or marrow-y when they were raw? In the picture, they look very bony. The width of the marrow should be much greater than the thickness of the bone. (Sorry I came upon this so late. I haven't been on-line for a couple of days.)

ah. to tell the truth, i wasn't sure which part the marrow was in the raw bone. there was a bright white circumference that was very obviously bone, and a pinker middle of a different texture that i hopefully assumed was a whole lot of marrow. turns out that the marrow is a smaller ring within that which only seemed to become apparent once the roasting began. i assumed that since they were sold as marrow bones, all of them would have a lot of marrow inside--one, however had none, and the other two didn't have a whole lot.

it is much easier with goat, where you have long tubular bones wothin which marrowy goodness resides. next time i will try to identify bones with more marrow, or enlist meat dept. help.

that's exactly what my bones looked like pre-oven. i thought that middle section would get nice and soft and gooey but they remained hard and bony. a smaller bit of the middle of two of the bones got soft and liquidy.

Maurice has a point, though. Is it possible the marrow melted away? It will turn to liquid if cooked hard and long enough.

I do these a la Zuni. Instead of roasting the bones, I remove the marrow and then broil it on toast, maybe with some truffle butter.