Roasted Marrow Bones on Crusty Bread

We love Local Pig, our local charcuterie/butcher shop serving organic, ethically raised and slaughtered meat. What they have to offer is dependent on what they get in a particular week. Some things they only have a small number of, so when you see something you like, it's best to get it right away. For me, that's marrow bones. Roasting bones for the delicious marrow is a new thing in the U.S., but it's been common around the globe for ever. In pure haute cuisine style, the prevalence of processed food in contemporary society has led to high-end restaurants moving in exactly the opposite direction, glorifying the "peasant life" and enjoying the kind of tail-to-snout cuisine (which tries to make use of every part of an animal) that simple folk have been partaking of for centuries out of necessity. It's a simple case of everything old is new again. Hell, if my grandma was still alive, her fastidious use of every bit of everything she bought could have made her an Iron Chef.

Rant aside, marrow bones are the thickest bones of beef or veal, usually the femur or some such. You can ask for them at your local butcher or grocery store. They aren't popular enough yet to have out in the meat case, but it's worth a shot to ask. Alternatively, if you live in a decently-sized city, or one that has a bit of a food culture, you can try them at a restaurant before fully committing.

Marrow is like meat butter. It is fatty and rich, and OHMYGODAMAZING. It's amazingly easy to make, and simple, and is best served on some crusty bread, like Dave's awesome ciabatta. Weirdly enough, you can pair it with some tart fruit jelly or compote like blueberry, strawberry or sour cherry. It sounds weird, but the tart fruit flavor enhances the richness of the marrow.

Get your bones unwrapped, pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees,

and put a drizzle of olive oil in some sort of baking pan. Add the bones, standing up tall, and add a sprinkle of coarse salt on top (we forgot, so we added the salt at the end)

Put 'em in the oven and roast them for 10-15 minutes, until the top marrow is brown and sizzling

Add salt if you were too hungry and/or drunk and forgot:

Scoop the marrow out with a knife (unless you have a special fancy marrow spoon, which we don't), The inside of the bone is bumpy, so scrape hard and tilt the bone upside down to get all the deliciousness out. The big bits come out in shell-on-peanut sized clumps. The pan you roasted them in will have a thin layer of delicious melted fat in the bottom. You can save this and use it anywhere you would use butter or oil, or you can soak your bread in it and enjoy the hot, fatty deliciousness.

Work the marrow out of the bones and smear it on some bread. So good!