Comprised mostly of fat, bone marrow tastes like browned butter—for this , you can often find it used for sweet custards and desserts in old cookbooks. Cream and eggs nicely complement roasted marrow in this simple savory custard, while the fresh flat-leaf parsley adds a clean, bright flavor to balance the richness. I often serve this custard for a late but substantial breakfast with sliced fruit, though it pairs nicely with a crisp green salad at lunchtime. Long leg bones from beef steers provide delicious, buttery marrow. Purchase them precut, or ask your butcher or rancher to cut them 1 inch to 4 inches thick to make scooping out the marrow a little more manageable. While you can remove the marrow from the center of a raw bone, roasting the bones significantly improves the flavor of marrow and makes it a bit easier to remove, too.
SERVES: 4 OR 6
INGREDIENTS:
- 5 pounds beef marrow bones, cut about 1 inch thick
- 5 eggs
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt
- 1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Put the bones in a single layer in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and let the bones cool until they are comfortable to handle.
- Decrease the oven temperature to 325°F and grease six 4-ounce or four 6- ounce ramekins with a bit of butter.
- Extract the marrow from the bones with a spoon and drop it into a bowl, discarding the bones.
- Whisk the eggs and cream into the marrow, then pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl to remove any coagulated bits of marrow or lumps of egg. Whisk in the salt, pepper, and parsley.
- Pour the mixture into the buttered ramekins and place the ramekins in a large baking dish. Fill the dish with enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the sides of the custards are set but the centers remain a touch wobbly. Serve warm.
