Bone Marrow

Aurora just turned one! We were planning to have a little “berry first birthday” party with diy strawberry shortcakes, but the decorations still haven’t come in so we decided to postpone. Instead I baked a banana cake (think banana bread but with more eggs and buttermilk) and wanted to try some bone marrow icing.

One of the best first foods for babies (and a great addition to everyone’s diet) is bone marrow. Of course, grass fed pasture raised beef bone marrow is best, but it’s often hard to find. We found some conventionally raised cow bone marrow at our grocery store and bought two packs of that…because ultimately, even though it’s not the best choice, whole foods are still a much better choice than alternatives.

For us the bone marrow comes in precut frozen packages. It’s best to get a lot of smaller bones than the bigger ones as typically there is more marrow to get from the smaller cuts.

these bones were way too big and we ended up having to go back to Publix and get more smaller ones like those on the bottom.

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To make it, all you have to do is get a cookie sheet, put some parchment paper down and bake those bones in the oven at 425 for 25 mins. When they are done you scoop out the marrow with a knife, spoon, or skewer.

My husband loves eating it just like that. All slimy… however, for Aurora we scooped out the marrow and put it in our mixer for about 10 minutes. With nothing else. After 10 minutes it turned into a whipped marrow spread. I took that and iced Aurora’s smash cake. (After sampling it, of course :)

Eek. I know it doesn’t look promising (we had to go buy more bc this wasn’t enough) but once you whip it you’ll never go back

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Now, you might think it has a meaty flavor but really it’s just like butter in terms of taste and texture. You can put it on breads, cakes, cook with it or eat it as is. Also you could add herbs, salt, or honey while whipping to infuse it with more flavor. We kept it as is for the cake since Aurora didn’t need any extra flavorings but I would love to make a garlic herb whipped marrow in the future.

We chose this for Auroras cake because we didn’t see the need in pumping her full of sugar after spending a year avoiding it. Additionally, bone marrow is packed with nutrients, vitamins, iron, fat, so being able to pair it with a cake made it perfect to sneak in all the added benefits. She has already been exposed to it and liked it so I figured a familiar might be welcomed and we wouldn’t have a sugar crash (at least as bad).

For us it was perfect.

Her face says it all.

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One of the best parts of making bone marrow or a bone marrow spread is that after you bake the bones and scoop out the meat you still have bones with meat on the outside which is perfect to make bone broth or stock.

I used half of our bone and boiled them with water for about 2 hours to make a broth for our dog. The other half of our bones I put in a pot, covered with water, added some celery stalks, two big cut carrots, a few cloves of garlic, a quarter of an onion and some thyme. I boiled it for almost 3 hours.

Check out the fat content after refrigerating it over night!

This will be a great base for my lentil stew, vegetable soup, ramen, chili or just to boil noodles, veggies and more in. It should stay well in the fridge for up to 3 days but we are freezing this sucker to save for a rainy day and a bowl of soup.

So, this is your sign to go out and get some bone marrow. Slurp it up. Turn it into butter. Ice a cupcake. Make some bone broth stock. It’s cheap, simple and a great way to nourish yourself.