Bone marrow (food)

Humans widely use thebone marrowof animals as food. It consists ofyellow marrowcontained inlong bones. There is also red marrow, which contains more nutrients than yellow marrow. It may be found in bone-in cuts ofmeatpurchased from a butcher or supermarket.
Many cultures have used bone marrow as food throughout history. Some anthropologists believe thatearly humanswerescavengersrather than hunters in some regions of the world. Marrow would have been a useful food source (largely due to itsfatcontent) for tool-using hominids, who were able to crack open the bones of carcasses left byapex predatorssuch as lions and wolves.Stones shaped like hand-sized balls have been revealed as tools used for cracking open bones to get access to the marrow, and go back almost 2 million years.Evidence for storage of bones containing bone marrow for later consumption has been found in theQesem cave.
European diners in the 18th century used a marrow scoop (or marrow spoon), often of silver and with a long, thin bowl, as a table implement for removing marrow from a bone. Bone marrow was also used in various preparations, such aspemmican. Bone marrow's popularity as a food is now relatively limited in the western world, but it remains in use in some gourmet restaurants, and is popular amongfood enthusiasts.
InVietnam, beef bone marrow is used as the soup base for the national staple dish,phở, while in thePhilippines, the soupbulalois made primarily of beef stock and marrow bones, seasoned with vegetables and boiled meat; a similar soup in the Philippines is calledkansi.
InIndonesia, bone marrow is calledsumsumand can be found especially inMinangkabau cuisine.Sumsumis often cooked as soup or asgulai(acurry-like dish).
InIndiaandPakistan, slow-cooked marrow is the core ingredient of the dishnalli nihari.
In China, pigtibiais used to make slow-cooked soup, with one or both ends of the tibia chopped off. After the soup is done, the marrow would be scooped out with chopsticks. In some restaurants, cooked pig tibia would be served with a drinking straw specifically for sucking out the semi-liquified marrow.
InHungary, tibia is a main ingredient ofbeef soup; the bone is chopped into 10–15 cm pieces, and the ends are covered with salt to prevent the marrow from leaking from the bone while cooking. Upon serving the soup, the marrow is usually spread on toast.
In Germany, thick slices of wholebeef shankwith bone and marrow are a staple available in most grocery stores, supermarkets and butcher shops, and used in many traditional recipes such as beef soups or beef inhorseradishcream sauce. These dishes are cooked for an hour or longer, nowadays commonly using apressure cooker, so that the marrow dissolves into the soup or sauce.
Beef bone marrow is also a main ingredient in theItaliandishossobuco(braised vealshanks); the shanks are cross-cut and served bone-in, with the marrow still inside the bone. Beef marrow bones are often included in theFrenchpot-au-feubroth, the cooked marrow being traditionally eaten on toasted bread with sprinkled coarsesea salt.
InIranian cuisine,lambshanks are usually broken before cooking to allow diners to suck out and eat the marrow when the dish is served. Similar practices are in South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine.
SomeNative Alaskanseat the bone marrow ofcaribouandmoose.
InKathmandu, Nepal,Sapu Mhichā, which is aleaf tripebag stuffed with bone marrow, is a delicacy served during special occasions. The bag is boiled and fried, and is eaten when the marrow is still molten.