Bone marrow was kept in a Stone Age meat locker | Hacker News Reader

Bone marrow was kept in a Stone Age meat locker

nytimes.com

35 pointsbookofjoe29 comments

The vague nutrition language in the Times article, led me to the study [1], which has more specifics:

“Marrow composition was mostly unsaturated FA (78%), especially monounsaturated (74%), and only 22% comprised saturated fats (table S1). Oleic (C18:1n-9) was the most abundant FA in marrow (36% in week 0), with a significant decrease per week (−0.7 ± 0.14%; P < 0.001). Other FA, like palmitoleic (C16:1n-7), palmitic (C16:0), and vaccenic (C18:1), had lower percentages (10 to 16%) and remained constant over time.

The energy value of marrow obtained from metapodial bones ranged from 123 kcal (bone from week 2 in the outdoor autumn scenario) to 2.7 kcal (bone from week 6 in the outdoor spring scenario). The energy contained in one bone in good conservation conditions (i.e., up to 9 weeks in the outdoor autumn scenario or the first few weeks in the outdoor spring scenario) could be comparable to the crude energy content of 25 g of fresh meat.”

1. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/10/eaav9822

Bone marrow, still in the bone and with Fleur de Sel, is one of my favorite dishes!

How do Americans think about bone marrow as a dish?

Despite all the comments here it’s not particularly uncommon, at least not in places that have either adventurous fine dining or throwback old school steak type options.

Head to Minetta Tavern in NYC’s west village and sit at the bar and order it with a glass of wine, you’ll thank me later.

>How do Americans think about bone marrow as a dish?

We don't. Even the tiny number of people that do their own butchering rarely mention it. I've had hunters tell me "don't give bones to your dogs its bad for them!"

Most Americans don't know marrows could be food and would probably have to be starving before they'd try it.

I regularly see bone marrow on restaurant menus, and frozen cut bones are available in grocery stores.

I've lived in North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, New York and Colorado.... Wherever you happen to be I'd guess that if you start looking you'll find that it's always been there.

Just not on menus of restaurants the 90% of the people go to regularly...

The admonitions about giving dogs bones derive from fast eaters tending to choke on them - not the bone's nutrition. (Although it would not surprise me if somehow the idea has gotten corrupted)

Some bones, especially chicken bones, also splinter and cause all kinds of serious havoc on the digestive system.

I've had pork bones break in scary ways as well when the dogs got into them. I personally don't give my dogs anything but rawhides and large beef bones anymore, both of which you just have to buy specially really.

On the subject of actual marrow, it adds a lot to soups and stews. Usually added via just cooking the bones in the soup/stew and removing towards the end.

Cooked bones. Raw chicken bones are bendy and harmless.

Crickets is what you'll get from Americans on this topic. Chances are they haven't seen it in a restaurant or anywhere else.

I can’t speak for all Americans, but it’s fantastic and sadly inaccessible. Grocery stores either don’t have them, want to charge an unreasonable premium as if it’s exotic, or ideally will give them away. However that’s a perk the butcher gets for friends, family, and loyal customers. Unfortunately, I don’t have such a relationship with a butcher, so it’s a rare treat. Those who do have access are very much into it.

I don't know if "exotic" is the right word, but they are scarce; there aren't many good marrow bones compared to the amount of meat on a cow. I have good relationships with a couple Chicago butchers (I was an investor) and I'd have to ask far ahead for the marrow bones. Since there's so little of it to sell, they're more likely to make a product that stretches them, like marrow butter or bone marrow burgers, than to simply sell the bones.

I was reliably able to get them at Paulina Meat Market without advanced notice a couple years ago when I lived nearby. The only caveat is they don't like to saw them when it's busy or close to closing time. So if you don't have a bandsaw, go off hours

You will see it here and there. It is not common, usually in steak houses or French restaurants. The smaller (dedicated) butcher shops will give you a cut that you can work with. The larger grocery stores usually only have bones for stock or at best oxtail soup.

No. Marrow bones were a super big fine dining trend about 10 years ago, though it's died off a bit; you'll still find them at high-end gastropubs. And of course, you'll find osso buco even at red sauce Italian joints.

You need a big-ish city to find them with any frequency. They’re on the menu at my favorite restaurants in Vegas and San Diego. I also just recently saw them in Tallahassee. I’ve also had marrow delivered via crowd cow, a crowd funded butcher box service.

Anecdotal, but you’re mostly correct.

Where I live currently, there’s exactly one restaurant that has it on the menu for quite literally a 2 hour driving radius.

Osso bucco is one of my favorite dishes. Coincidentally, we're gonna have one for dinner!

(Not an American but just continuing the conversation on favorite bone marrow dishes. :-D)

This is the correct answer. You can get osso bucco in almost any significantly sized American city.

I live in Sweden but I’ll take the opportunity to answer anyway :) I recently had some bone marrow when my sister-in-law made gulyás. IMHO marrow is too fatty and has too little taste. I love butter, cream and ribeye and stuff like that, but not a fan of marrow to be honest.

It's rare in American cuisine but in New York one of my favorite restaurants has a bone marrow fried rice and it's sublime.

Blue Ribbon? With the Oxtail?

When we had a local packing plant butcher steers, we'd get round steaks with the ring bone, including marrow. My recollection is that it was pretty tasty. The dog loved chewing the bone afterwards.

I've had it, wasn't overly impressed. Maybe it was just the preparation, but I remember thinking I'd never have it again unless I wasn't paying for it.

Answer: 99% don't think of bone marrow as food.

Absolutely love bone marrow. Pretty rare I get to eat it though.

I don't understand how meat stored in ambient conditions and quite warm temperatures (main article seems to say ~20C) doesn't go off.

Oxygen - or lack of. Think about it - marrow is sealed inside the bone. They had to use stone chisels to free it so it could be consumed :)

Christ I'm an idiot - for some reason I thought they'd opened the bones up before storing them :( Of course not. Thanks.

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