Types of bone marrow

[LePatron7]

Hey everyone.

Are there different types of bone marrow? I've gotten some that are really chalky and hard to scoop. Others that are really soft, like butter.

Why is this?? Thanks.

[TylerDurden]

"Stefansson also mentions, interestingly, that marrow from the upper leg(humerus and femur) is hard and tallowy at room-temperature while the marrow from the lower leg is soft and creamy. The Eskimoes, apparently, preferred to cook the harder marrow, but preferred to eat the softer marrow in raw form."

[a87.pal]

I bought something like 30 lbs of beef marrow and 30 lbs of bison marrow from slankers a while back. (I was testing the plausibility of getting all my fat from marrow)

What I found was that about 20% of what they sent me was the translucent yellow-orange "buttery" type, the remainder was the white type. Both are good, but the "buttery" type is the best tasting fat I have experienced so far.

There is one website online I found that  claims the softer marrow comes from the lower leg. But I have never seen any other verification of this. Slankers didn't seem to know what I was even talking about or care to check.

When I was scooping the marrow out, I noticed that each bone was different. Some had all soft marrow. Others had the soft marrow only near the joint. And some had the soft marrow in the center.

I imagine it depends on the animal, its diet, etc. Did notice that slanker's cows seemed to have more of the soft marrow than their bison. But the cow bones were bigger (radius).