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Originally Posted by
Lazurii 
I love the cartilage and ooky stuff in broth and the marrow is my favorite. Yum! When I was eating bread I would mix marrow with sea salt and slather it all over a slice of bread. So good.
When my bones get super soft I like to dehydrate them in my oven and grind them up with my mortar and pestle. I can get it very fine, like flour. I'll add this bone powder to all sorts of things: pancakes, smoothies, soups, etc. It still tastes a little broth-y so sometimes I'll use it to boost flavor in my soups. I've been wanting to experiment with using the bone powder as a flour substitute in some recipes. I remember reading a book that had a recipe for bone meal cookies. Anyways, we like our bones over here!
We are the same way here: cook the bones into a reduction after baking in a roasting pan. We keep chicken, turkey, lamb and beef bone soup separate. We freeze a lot of bone stock to use as a soup base. Marrow is rich in fat-soluble vitamins (and of course Calcium) We like the flavor.
I don't know if many know this, but 4H Auctions are great places to obtain properly fed meat animals. They are raised in really nice conditions, kept on a healthy (not grain intensive) diet, are not crowded into a pen and confined or stressed. When sold the money helps 4-H kids save for College. This past year we purchased 2 lambs and a pig: the meat is delicious, and the animals in excellent health. We process them ourselves and everything gets used. Having a freezer (not the frost-free kind) helps a lot.
If the bones get soft enough to eat, I consume them with the meal.
As for fish bones, DH makes fishbone stock for his mother after he goes spearfishing. This is completely different than a meat stock. The bones are 'roasted' and then cooked with water and vegetables. Simmered for about 4-6 hours. We pour the soup through a Chinoise (or cheesecloth) and freeze it for DH's mom who has Osteoporosis. {she had malnutrition as a child, hospitalized twice} I think her early diet deficiencies are causing her to have more problems at a fairly young age (71). My mom is 85 and has always tested negative for Osteoporosis...she's pretty active and amazingly healthy.
Fish bones can have a strong odor while cooking. If you add parsley or a few potatoes to the stock, it can really help mellow out the flavor/fragrance. Stay away from oily fish for soups. Those fish are better consumed after smoking them.
Oh, the question about what bone marrow looks and tastes like: when raw, marrow is white or creamy-white. When the bones are roasted or cooked in soup, the marrow seems to dissolve into the broth. If it doesn't, it can be spooned out of the bone cavity and eaten. It is very bland, with a creamy texture. When the bones are from a cut of roasted meat, the marrow can be golden brown where the heat and air contact it. Digging deeper, it is creamy white.
Just this past month I read a restaurant review of a place that features roasted marrow bones with vegetables (which are cooked separately) as an entree. It seemed funny to me that it was treated as a 'new' culinary phenomenon. Serving it with toast is traditional.
Some butchers will saw larger bones lengthwise for you: if you wish to serve the marrow in the bone, place it in the roasting pan in such a way that it won't melt and spill out of the bones. Foil can help avoid this. It is pretty rich tasting, and the flavor benefits by pairing with Sitka or Chantrelle mushrooms. Follow with salad :)
I am happy to hear about the chickens enjoying bone fragments; they need Calcium, too!
Fun thread.
I have a question for you, Lazurii; Do you refrigerate the bone powder? I like the idea of putting it in soups! Good one!
for gcgirl:
Fish per se don't have 'marrow'. Even large fish like 400# seabass don't have marrow in the bones. Most fish bones are either solid and very dense, or they can be partially (or completely) made of cartilage. The cartilage becomes very watery and delicate when the whole fish is baked, including the spinal column. It is possible to focus on fish like Bat Rays and cook the fins for the Calcium. The body doesn't have any significant meat, but the wings become tender after simmering a while. Cut the wings up, as the skin is tough and you won't get a good extraction of nutrients unless the inner meat is exposed to the broth. As with any fish take, consult your Fish and Game recommendations for consumption by pregnant and nursing women. Some fish can harbor significant amounts of undesirable compounds, and the DFG Annual Guide will inform how often it is okay to eat those kinds of fish. (They will mention which amounts are safe as well.) In the tropics, be aware of Ciguatera. (sorry got off topic.)
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