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Marrow Bones (May be either deviled)
May be either deviled or boiled, but in either instance the ends should be well sealed with a paste made of flour and water. Serve with slices of hot buttered toast, without crust, and a marrow spoon for transferring the marrow to the toast.
Two lines of instruction assume a great deal of knowledge that has since drifted away. Here is what the entry takes for granted.
- The paste is the pointFlour-and-water paste sealed over each cut end keeps the marrow from melting out into the water or sliding out in the oven. Mix a stiff dough, roughly two parts flour to one part water by volume, press a coin-thick disc onto each end, and peel it off before serving. It is not eaten.
- Buying the bonesAsk for beef shank or femur cut into sections about three inches long, cut straight across so both ends are open. Center-cut sections give the most marrow. Canoe-cut halves are common now but cannot be sealed and will render out quickly.
- BoiledStand the bones upright in barely simmering salted water, sealed ends up, for about 15 to 20 minutes. A hard boil pushes the marrow through the seal and leaves it grey and grainy.
- "Deviled"The term of the period generally implies a sharp seasoning, typically mustard and cayenne, often with breadcrumbs, followed by browning; the entry itself does not spell it out. No temperature or timing is given in the original. A hot oven for a short spell works: cook until the marrow is soft and just beginning to bubble at the edges but has not collapsed into liquid.
- Knowing when it is doneThe marrow should be translucent and yielding, not slumped or oily. Overcooked marrow renders to fat and disappears; the window is a matter of minutes at either cooking method.
- The marrow spoonA long narrow scoop for reaching down the bone. A thin-handled iced-tea spoon or the handle end of a teaspoon does the same work. Serve the bones on a folded napkin so they do not roll.
- ServingToast trimmed of crust, salt, and something sharp — coarse salt and lemon, or the parsley salad now standard with roasted marrow. Two to three bone sections make a first course for one.
Marrow was standard Victorian and Edwardian table food, eaten hot on toast — sometimes as a savoury at the end of dinner, sometimes as a first course — and it is often said that Queen Victoria took marrow toast almost daily — a claim repeated widely enough that it shaped the dish's reputation as a genteel indulgence. Oscar Tschirky, maitre d'hotel of the Waldorf and the compiler of this 1896 book, wrote for readers who already owned marrow spoons and knew what "deviled" meant, which is why the entry is so brief: it settles a question of technique rather than teaching a dish. The flour-and-water seal belongs to a broader family of huff-paste and luting tricks, cheap flour dough used as a disposable lid, gasket or armour in kitchens with no foil and no plastic wrap. Marrow bones fell out of restaurant fashion for most of the twentieth century and returned through London kitchens in the 1990s, roasted split and open, which is why the sealing instruction now reads as unfamiliar.