Marrow Bones
Have the bones cut two or four inches long and wash and wipe them. Make a stiff dough of flour and water and roll it out to one-fourth inch in thickness. Put a piece about two inches square over each end of the bones and tie in a piece of cloth; lay them in a stewpan, cover with boiling water Serve very and bo'l one hour; then remove the cloth and paste. hot. If the four-inch bones are used small fringed napkins must be pinned around them and long-handled small spoons must be provided with which to take out the marrow. The latter is usually seasoned with cayenne, and the bones are passed with little squares
A Victorian savoury of beef marrow bones boiled upright, sealed at the ends so the melted marrow cannot escape. The text has come through the scanner damaged in two places: it should read "cover with boiling water and boil one hour... Serve very hot," and the closing line is the standard direction to pass the bones with little squares of toast.
- The hinge: seal both endsMarrow liquefies well below boiling and will simply run out into the water if the bones are open. The flour-and-water paste is a sacrificial gasket, not food; the cloth holds it in place under a rolling boil. A double layer of foil crimped tight over each end does the same job. The recipe has the bones laid in the stewpan rather than stood on end.
- Buying the bonesAsk for center-cut beef shank or femur sections, sawn crosswise to 2 or 4 inches. The recipe gives no yield; judge quantity by appetite. Bones sawn lengthwise, sold now for roasted marrow, will not work here since there is no end to seal.
- One hour is too longOne hour is too long by modern taste -- Twenty to thirty minutes at a bare simmer is generally enough to bring the marrow to a soft, spoonable state; the book's full hour will render it looser and more oily.
- A stiff dough means stiffAdd water to flour a little at a time, only until the dough coheres and barely tacks to the hand, then roll it to the quarter inch the recipe specifies. A slack dough dissolves in the pot.
- Roasting is the modern routeRoasting is a modern alternative -- Marrow bones are now often stood in a shallow pan and roasted in a hot oven, which avoids the paste entirely and browns the marrow's surface. The boiled version here is milder and looser in texture.
- Seasoning and serviceCayenne is the period seasoning; salt and a little pepper belong with it, added at the table. Serve with squares of dry toast, and provide narrow marrow spoons or the handle end of iced-tea spoons for the 4-inch bones.
- The fringed napkinPinning a napkin around a tall bone lets a diner grip a hot bone, and served as presentation as well. A folded band of parchment or a paper cuff will do the same job.
Marrow bones were a fixture of the British savoury course through the nineteenth century, served at the end of dinner with toast and cayenne in the same slot that later went to Welsh rarebit or devilled biscuits, and Queen Victoria is often said to have taken them regularly. Silver marrow scoops, long and narrow with a channel down the length, were common in Georgian silver services and survived into the Victorian era. The Butterick Cook Book, published in New York in 1911 for a pattern-company readership of middle-class housekeepers, carries a good deal of this English savoury tradition alongside its American baking and canning.