The Taste of Bone Marrow.

[paper_clips43]

So I find myself instinctually craving bone marrow and I pretty much eat it every day. It also digests the best of any other raw fat I consume. Only about one out of every five bones I eat the marrow out of actually tastes good though. Most of the time its this dry gritty taste with spots of blood that make it taste horrible to me and I have to cover my nose. Then once in a while I get that perfect bone with very fatty and greasy marrow that tastes sweet and delicious. I feel like I could eat buckets of that stuff.

My question is that even though most marrow tastes bad does that actually mean I should not consume it even though I instinctually crave it?

[van]

I've had the same experiences, for years now.   What might help is with the dry marrow, scoop it out and put it in a bowl and place in a bowl of warm water.  A large pot works well.  It will soften some.  Keep it around 100f.    With me even with  the soft buttery kind, alone, I can only enjoy so much and then there's this tremendous stop.  I notice for me that it takes longer for it to digest in my stomach than back fat.  Or to say it another way, if I eat it with meat, I can eat a lot of it, and if I do, my that combo doesn't digest as with the same amount of back fat.  But bottom line, I wouldn't force yourself to eat anything.

[Iguana]

I guess there's a quality problem with the bones you get. Either too old or from sick, badly fed animals. Don't eat it if it smells and tastes bad.

If it smells and taste appetizing, it doesn't necessarily mean  that the animal never had access to garbage, heated food, industrial feedstuffs, wheat or soja. You'd better make that point sure first.

I never tried Van's method, but it may perhaps help if the bone is simply to old and thus the marrow too dry.

[paper_clips43]

@Iguana
All the meat I order is from North Star Bison and it is the only grass fed meat I have access too currently. I take it you have never had the issue of dry gritty marrow? Then I suspect the animal quality might be the culprit.

@Van
I have noticed similar digestion issues if I eat marrow with meat and I have been eating it only with the collagen on my lamb knuckles which seems to digest fine. Also with liver occasionally. When I eat it with meat I can hear my tummy rumbling for about an hour. I am going to try your method soon and see if this helps. The sound of warm marrow makes me salivate even though I just ate 6 bones for breakfast!  I do notice that marrow tends to taste better if I leave the bones out for at least 24 hours and even 48 hours or longer.

Also something I noticed after I just finished my breakfast was the marrow I scooped out of a lamb knuckle I had soaking in lime juice was really moist and delicious. I think I am going to experiment with soaking the gross looking marrow bones in an acid base to potentially soften them up as well.

[van]

With north star, you can rest that your getting good quality.    Sometimes with marrow,  I'll eat a bit with meat, but the amount of meat is quite small.  that seems to work.  It's almost as early man/woman would have gorged on the flesh, than later, maybe around the fire, they might have sat there cracking open bones and jokes.

[Haai]

It's very common to get bone marrow with varying textures. This is probably due to the fatty acid composition, which varies depending on which (part of the) bone the marrow is from.

The following quote is from Cordain et al. Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: Evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease. Eur J Clin Nutr, 2002;56:181-191.

"data from North American animals shows that the relative degree of saturation
decreases distally in both the front and rear legs (Meng et al, 1969; Turner, 1979; West & Shaw, 1975). The double
bond index (summation of the weight percentage of each FA in a mixture multiplied by the number of double bonds it
contains per molecule divided by 100) has been shown to increase as marrow is sampled from proximal to distal leg
bones. Furthermore, the increase in the double bond index correlates most closely with 18:1 n-9 (Meng et al, 1969;
Turner, 1979; West & Shaw, 1975). MUFA percentages in the more proximal humerus and femur of three North
American ruminants ranged from 40 to 45% of total FA, whereas in the more distal metacarpus and metatarsus,
MUFA increased to 70 –75% of total FA (Meng et al, 1969; Turner, 1979; West & Shaw, 1975)."

[van]

gotta wonder why nature did that?  probably blood supply?

[TylerDurden]

This likely has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual quality of the marrow. I have mentioned numerous times in the past that there  are 2 type of marrow. One type is as dry as sawdust and tastes the same(but might sometimes  improve if left to age in a warm environment?) and the other is soft and creamy and often with lots of red(blood) in it. According to Stefansson, the former type comes from  the humerus and femur, and the latter type comes from the lower leg.

[goodsamaritan]

So I find myself instinctually craving bone marrow and I pretty much eat it every day. It also digests the best of any other raw fat I consume. Only about one out of every five bones I eat the marrow out of actually tastes good though. Most of the time its this dry gritty taste with spots of blood that make it taste horrible to me and I have to cover my nose. Then once in a while I get that perfect bone with very fatty and greasy marrow that tastes sweet and delicious. I feel like I could eat buckets of that stuff.

My question is that even though most marrow tastes bad does that actually mean I should not consume it even though I instinctually crave it?

I choose only those tasty marrows you speak of.

[sabertooth]

I have noticed the two differnt marrow types as well.

The Creamy and the cruddy.

Sometimes for me quality is an issue, there are many variables that go into it, but if the animal is well nurished on rich clean pasture then there should be perdominatly creamy marrow.

I have pointed out the Cruddy marrow to my boss and he has told me that it can often be a sign of malnurishment. The body of the animal will draw out the richist and creamyest part of the marrow for sustance in lean times.

I speculate
The animals body could draw out the richer fat of the marrow for a number of reasons. This can happen even in healthy grass-fed animals. During the season changes animals are often supplemented with dry hay. Hormonal changes in the animal during heat cycles can also affect the marrow. After male deer go through the rut their bodies are depleted of fat reserves and there marrow is extremely cruddy, gritty and bloody.

Even north-star bison would have natural variations from animal to animal, depending on the season, gender, and pastures its animals are on.

Deer season is coming up and I plan to use deer marrow as a primary fat source in the upcoming months.
Just ate the marrow from three deer we did earlier today.

[van]

I choose only those tasty marrows you speak of.

hard to find markets here where you can choose which marrow bones you want,  usually you just order a certain amount of poundage and they send you what they have.

[svrn]

Saber, how do you get so many deer? I cannot find anyone selling deer where I live.

Is it from a farm?

[sabertooth]

I get my deer from the scrap barrels at the butcher shop(If anyone ask they are dog bones). During hunting season from now until December I will have access to the bones of at least 200 deer. These come from wild game animals, and I can take my pick of scraps from the most robust animals with the best marrow.

Deer is primarily wild game, and it cant be sold legally in America unless its been farm raised, which makes it ungodly expensive.

[jessica]

wild deer hearts and  liver are so delicious.  what do you do with the hides?  you can fetch a pretty penny for soft brain tanned/naturally tanned hides.