Bone Marrow Pate or Beef Butter

The day I made Bone Marrow Pate, was a day I could rejoice that the medicine I was using to restore the effects of blood loss from a Red Cross donation was a day I could actually blend beef bone marrow into one of my favorite things in the world, BUTTER!  Because I am not an intentional food blogger, I wanted to give you a link to someone who did it right ~  MommyPotamus.com 's idea of using rosemary decorating mashed potatoes with it... she's a genius and I bow to her.

A great deal of my kitchen items are on loan in Vermont until spring so I am making due with more manual aspects of culinary endeavors.  As a result, mine did not resemble butter or even an appropriate  pate as it really requires a mixer to accomplish well.  But I hand blended it and it still tasted amazing - it just wasn't as pretty as it could have been.  My goal on this was food as medicine, so that was accomplished. Next goal, medicine and aestietic appeal.

Whole Foods only sells marrow bones in bulk bags of six.  My intention was to make a kettle of broth from a couple of the bones.  Someone in the grocery checkout suggested I make a pate out of the bones, so I did both!

The first thing I did was toss two bones into my cast iron kettle full of water with celery, carrots, a purple onion and beef bouillon.  Adding apple cider vinegar helps bring the minerals out of the bones and into the broth.  Apple cider vinegar pretty much deserves its own medicinal use page.  I consume it copiously in as many ways as I can find.  But pretty much involves just a spoon and my mouth.  

Oh my heck, yes that's a steak knife I'm slicing veggies with.  A really dull one. 

I tossed in some parsley. Parsley is used as medicine for kidney and liver strengthening, prostate health, and intestinal ease.  It's a good one for soups and broths.  My mother always used the dried.  I went for the fresh this time.  Isn't it purdy?  I felt healthy just having this all in my hands. Being mid-winter and the middle of ski racing season, I've been feeling a bit short in delivering the fresh veggies to my family.

I brought it to a boil and then simmered for 2-3 hours.  That was the broth.  No photos exist because I had to quickly depart for other activities.  Skim the crud from the bones off the top and you have a broth that is really nourishing. I ate it plain and served it over Jasmine rice.  I felt re-energized within minutes of the first bowl.  I had it for breakfast the next morning.  And lunch.  Energy restored.  it really works.  Or just a placebo.  You decide.  It might not be as pretty as those Mormon casseroles, but it's probably a wise dish to serve a neighbor who is ill or recovering. 

With the remaining bones I tossed them on a tarnished cookie sheet (this is one of the reasons why I'm not a professional food blogger) and fired them up in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes.  I think next time I'd go to a 425 for 15 minutes.  I think the marrow consistency would be more appealing and easier to blend if it was heated at a higher temp.

This looks really nasty, I know. I had to show you what the cooked marrow actually looks like,though. 

Upon taking them out of the oven, the marrow resembles a gel and can be scraped out of the bone into a mixing bowl.  With the marrow warm, I added purple onion, cilantro, sea salt and olive oil and blended.  Looked a little funny and clumpy but tasted amazing over crackers and bread.  I'm scheming for doing the butter-laden-beef-butter with rosemary next time over potatoes.

Ciao!



















Here are a couple of my favorite images of how other people across the world wide web served out their marrow bone pate/butter.  Mine resembled the naughtiness served directly in the bone or on toast.

Too much of this could probably take your cholesterol over the top, but is cholesterol actually bad for you?  It's actually the body's manner of speeding healing.  It's an indicator of inflammation and probably indicative of some other underlying issue that needs resolving.  Pregnant women's cholesterol can be through the roof then usually resolves after pregnancy.

Bone marrow has fats in it that are super helpful to the body and brain!

Ciao!