Bone Marrow

The Weston A. Price Foundation explains in their article that traditional peoples who consumed large animals did not ignore the marrow hidden away in the bones; in fact, they valued the marrow as an extremely nutritious food.

Dr. Weston A Price provides us with a good example: “For the Indians living inside the Rocky Mountain Range in the far North of Canada, the successful nutrition for nine months of the year was largely limited to wild game, chiefly moose and caribou. During the summer months the Indians were able to use growing plants. During the winter some use was made of bark and buds of trees. I found the Indians putting great emphasis upon the eating of the organs of the animals, including the wall of parts of the digestive tract. Much of the muscle meat of the animals was fed to the dogs. It is important that skeletons are rarely found where large game animals have been slaughtered by the Indians of the North. The skeletal remains are found as piles of finely broken bone chips or splinters that have been cracked up to obtain as much as possible of the marrow and nutritive qualities of the bones. These Indians obtain their fat-soluble vitamins and also most of their minerals from the organs of the animals. An important part of the nutrition of the children consisted in various preparations of bone marrow, both as a substitute for milk and as a special dietary ration” Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6th Edition, page 260.

When Price devised a nutrition plan for an orphanage, the meal included bone marrow. “About four ounces of tomato juice or orange juice and a teaspoonful of a mixture of equal parts of a very high vitamin natural cod liver oil and an especially high vitamin butter was given at the beginning of the meal. They then received a bowl containing approximately a pint of a very rich vegetable and meat stew, made largely from bone marrow and fine cuts of tender meat: the meat was usually broiled separately to retain its juice and then chopped very fine and added to the bone marrow meat soup which always contained finely chopped vegetables and plenty of very yellow carrots; for the next course they had cooked fruit, with very little sweetening, and rolls made from freshly ground whole wheat, which were spread with the high-vitamin butter. The wheat for the rolls was ground fresh every day in a motor driven coffee mill. Each child was also given two glasses of fresh whole milk. The menu was varied from day to day by substituting for the meat stew, fish chowder or organs of animals” Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6th Edition, page 295.

A search of the Internet reveals bone marrow recipes described with great affection by epicures in France, Ireland, the Philippines, and Korea. Cultures such as the Native American or Mongolian might have eaten the marrow raw—which can be extracted in one long, cohesive cylindrical piece with a well-placed tap on a femur bone. In gourmet cooking, marrow shows up as a garnish for beef tenderloin served with an intricate reduction sauce. Medieval recipes include meat pasties stuffed with sweetened bone marrow and quinces stuffed with marrow!

Read the rest of the article on the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website and see recipes for steak tartare with bone marrow, tomato marrow soup and marrow pasties. Also see Monica Corrado’s recipe for bone marrow butter. At the end of this article, you’ll find an recipe and picture for bone marrow custard; an excellent way to add nutrient density to a dessert!

Recipe for Bone Marrow Custard

Serves 4

1 cup heavy cream
2 ounces bone marrow
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
sea salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the marrow as above, so it is a pale color, not grey. Blend cream, marrow and eggs and season to taste. Pour into four small buttered ramekins, place in hot water and bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the custard is set. Let cool and unmold. Serve as an accompaniment to meat. [May be sweetened with honey or maple syrup to taste as was in the photograph below].  Here are some additional bone marrow custard recipes: Sweet Marrow Custard with Vanilla Bean and Pumpkin Spice Custard With Marrow Infusion.

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