Yesterday, I had my second blood test of the year, in the midst of a crazy schedule for the week, and my results were pretty good. Surprisingly, my cholesterol, HDL, LDL and other key measures are reasonably okay, given my previous history, so I thought I would splurge a little (a lot!) today with this outrageous appetizer unlike no other… roasted bone marrow on toast. Wow!

I have never done this dish at home. It was always something we ordered at restaurants, and in Makati, El Cirkulo usually has a pretty good version. But at the grocery a few days ago, I spied some beef bone marrow bones for sale at what seemed like incredibly reasonable prices, so I figured I would experiment, and if it failed, I would only be out PHP100 or roughly $2.

I purchased two bones, and had them saw them in half so I had four sections of marrow. Back at home, the cook scraped the bones of meat or muscle to ensure a clean bone surface when roasting…

Turns out one has to or should soak the cleaned bones/marrow in cold salted water in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours, changing the brine solution 3-4 times over a 24-hour period. This step is to remove much of the blood and draw out other impurities, I gather from a book on fat and bone marrow. I soaked them overnight.

Next heat your oven to 400-450F, dry your marrow bones with paper towels, stick them on a pan and place them in the oven to roast for 20-25 minutes, depending on size of bones until the marrow is loose, but not melted.

Use a nice bone marrow spoon or other implement to remove the roasted marrow and shmear it on some toasted slices of baguette. Sprinkle with good sea salt, I used Maldon flakes. And enjoy in its purest form. It is tempting fate in the nicest sort of way. The texture and flavor of roasted bone marrow is unlike anything else. It’s rich, silky, fatty and sublime in flavor. And I suspect, folks either love it or hate it. If you want to cut the richness of the marrow, sprinkle with chopped Italian flat leaf parsley drizzled with lemon juice.

I was inspired to try roasted bone marrow at home after leafing through this book about the dishes many top chefs would consume at their proverbial “last supper”… Anthony Bourdain is buck naked in his two pages in the book and only holds a large bone, a bulalo bone, in front of his family jewels. How’s that for being ballsy? It’s an interesting read with some pretty cool photos. “My Last Supper” written by Melanie Dunea.

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