Any of you remember the marrow bones we use to cut into three-inch pieces, rich people made appetizers out of them by roasting them in the oven at 450 degrees for about fifteen minutes and served them with crusty toast and a parsley salad, splash of olive oil, squeeze of lemon, a bit of coarse salt. they had skinny forks or little marrow knives to get into the bone. Some wanted the bones cut lengthwise to create a trough so the marrow was easy to scoop out. I think the last time I had any calls for them was around 1984
We cut 5 and 6 inch marrow bones, 'canoes' they call them because they are split lengthwise as you mentioned, almost every day for wholesale customers.
I never heard of that use for marrow bones, just for soup and for dogs. Splitting marrow bones length-wise seems pretty darn dangerous and I would have refused to do it.
I work for Stop and Shop and we sell a ton of marrow bones. Usually I take a 2 inch slice off one end so the long piece fits a tray. We sell the slices as well as the long pieces in pretty high volume. I don't think its a thing of the past. I learned how to prepare and eat marrow while I was an apprentice at a specialty shop, there's nothing quite like it. Butter, step aside!
Also, when I worked at a specialty butcher that did all local meat a few years ago we used to bone out all our shanks, grind the meat and sell the bones. Marrow bones are damn popular in my experience and I'm only 24 years old.
JimmyMac, I hate cutting them lengthwise on the bandsaw. I'm a young cutter who only got hired as a journeyman six months ago, but so far every time I've had a saw blade break on me it has been from cutting marrow bones lengthwise. Scary stuff when your fingers are that close. If the blade is old I always scrap and replace it before opening a box of bones, and if the blade is just okay I replace it right afterwards. Too bad if it slows down production for a few minutes, I'd rather have a fresh and safe saw blade than a heart attack, an amputation or worse yet, both.
-- Edited by FishmanOiOi on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 10:03:00 PM
-- Edited by FishmanOiOi on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 10:10:15 PM
Sure do Leon. We used to cut them into 1" or 2" slices and display them a half dozen to a tray. Splitting them lengthwise would see them sell to upscale clientele. They would roast or bake them then garnish the marrow with spiced herbs. Fancy stuff. Jim when we split them lengthwise they were held in place with a slab of bull meat for a guide. Splitting them was'nt much different than splitting beef feet for menudo or pig feet for pickling, smoking or stock. Gads I miss the day to day of our industry.
I can see how buffering with a side of bull meat would help on the band saw.
Your mention of splitting beef feet brings back other bad memories of very close calls. That was about the most dangerous thing we would cut on the band saw. The only bone saws I had were a hand saw, and band saws. We also had power cleavers to cut pork loins on but not suitable for cutting anything else. They put out quite a few wedges but they were very fast. You could cut 2 boxes of pork loins at once in about 10 minutes, and not have any bone dust.
We used to split marrow bones lengthwise for a restaurant my store opened across the street. One or two boxes a week and being a dumb apprentice at the time learned very quickly to make sure my band saw had a fairly new blade. Lately there has been a handful of customers asking for our grass-fed marrow bones for health benefits. I just love roasting up whatever we have left and sucking that marrow right out!
Us poor people just give them to dogs. I split them length wise all the time and hated it as it makes me nervous, but they don't give a rats ass about us, our fingers or well being. I didnt have the option to refuse, not if i wanted to keep my 11.50 an hour job.
-- Edited by fdarn on Wednesday 25th of December 2013 06:34:50 PM
Before box meat every shop had 1 or 2 bone barrels along with all the fat barrels. They were considered scrap, or given away free as soup bones or longer piece dog bones with any order if asked for now they're $ 2.99/lb or more If I had to check a bandsaw I just repaired I'd take a shin bone out of the pail and split it from end to end if the blade stayed on through that without jumping off it would cut anything
