No. 1319

Marrow Bones on Toast

Moelle sur Croutes Grillees

Scrape and clean well some marrow bones (the best marrow bones are found in the round, the second best in the hind legs). Saw them off in three and a half inch length pieces; wrap them in a cloth, and plunge them in boiling broth; let it continue to boil for twenty minutes, then drain and serve the bones containing the marrow on a folded napkin, and slices of toasted bread separately, or take out the marrow, and serve it on slices of toast without the bones.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives the barest outline of what was once a standard savoury course. Two details carry the dish: how the bones are cut, and how long they stay in the liquid.

The cut, in butcher's terms"The round" is the upper hind leg, so the best bones are femur sections; the "hind legs" are the shanks below. Ask for beef marrow bones cut crosswise into 3½-inch lengths, which any butcher with a bandsaw will do. Lengthwise (canoe-cut) bones are the modern fashion but will not work here, as the marrow slides out in poaching.
Wrapping is not optionalMarrow renders and floats away the moment it softens. The cloth wrap, or a plug of flour-and-water paste at each end, is the only thing holding it in. Cheesecloth tied at both ends does the job.
Twenty minutes is too longMarrow is almost entirely fat and begins to melt well below the boil. At a full boil, 3½-inch bones need roughly 10 to 12 minutes to heat through; twenty leaves you with hollow bones and a greasy broth. Pull one and probe the centre with a skewer, which should meet no resistance but still find something there.
Broth, not waterRanhofer poaches in broth rather than water, though he does not say why; the likely reasoning is that the bones give up little and take a little seasoning in. A light beef or veal stock is right; salted water works but tastes thinner.
Roasting insteadMarrow bones are commonly roasted rather than poached today — upright at 450F for about 15 minutes — which browns the surface and needs no wrapping. Ranhofer's method is gentler and gives a cleaner, more custardy marrow.
ServingThe bones go out on a folded napkin, the usual presentation for hot bones served in their shells. Marrow was eaten with a long narrow marrow spoon or scoop, or the handle of a teaspoon. Coarse salt and cracked pepper are the obvious seasonings; the chopped parsley and lemon now served with marrow belong to the modern roasted version. Ranhofer mentions none of them.
YieldFigure one to two bones per person as a savoury or first course, with two slices of hot toast each. Toast at the last minute; marrow congeals fast on cold bread.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working reference, which is why so many entries assume a brigade with a bone saw and a stockpot always on. Marrow was not a curiosity in the nineteenth century but a routine luxury: Victorian and Edwardian tables kept dedicated marrow spoons, and marrow bones appear regularly as a savoury, the small hot course served near the end of a formal English or English-influenced dinner. Queen Victoria is often said to have eaten marrow toast daily, a claim repeated far more often than it is documented. The dish fell out of general use in the mid-twentieth century along with most offal cookery, and returned to restaurant menus in the 1990s largely through Fergus Henderson's roast bone marrow with parsley salad at St. John in London, which is the roasted rather than poached treatment.