Which bone marrow to get?

[Adam]

Im new to the raw paleo world and have a question on marrow. I have to make a special order to get some marrow but what kind do i get? I heard theres like leg marrow and other types...im really uneducated on this subject. What I really want to know is what bone marrow actually contains the most marrow/least amount of bone. Also i am able to get pork fat relatively cheap. Is pork fat nutritious...is there any reason to buy some?
thank you

[Paleo Donk]

I've been eating lots of marrow this past month. Some days I get up to about half my calories from bone marrow alone. The marrow I eat comes from cow leg femurs, with the portion of the marrow being about as wide as my thumb. By weight the marrow is between 10-25% of the total bone depending on how saturated the fat is (I think). The degree of saturation as well as percentage of the marrow that is water changes over the length of the bone. Perhaps the best analysis of wild ruminant bone marrow was done by cordain and is below.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Final%20Fatty%20Acid%20PDF.pdf

The fatty acid composition of marrow in wild ruminants
has not been extensively studied; however, 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

So as can see, the marrow changes properties depending on its place in the leg.

Now to look at exactly how much of the marrow is actually fat, which can be important for those keeping track of calories

The total fat content of ruminant
marrow is highly variable and is dependent upon the nutritional status of the animal
[31], hence we used a mean value of 51 g fat/100 g sample from a sample of 17 African ungulates.

This isn't really all that helpful but gives a loose guide of what to expect. They also measured that marrow is 7% protein. The USDA nutrient database also has a since measure for caribou bone marrow that has it as 84% fat, quite a bit higher than the 51% that Cordain quoted but with the same amount of protein.

And heres an article that talks about vitamin K2 in bone marrow.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/11/vitamin-k2-in-marrow.html

[TylerDurden]

In the past, unless I specifically stated that I wanted only the cuts of bones with the most marrow in them, I would often just be given very thin bones with hardly any marrow in them(they'd then  assume it was meant just as dog-food). I did sometimes get things like the end part of the bone with minuscule amounts of marrow in a tiny hole, but they were usually OK, overall, as long as I made that request re lots of marrow-rich bones.

Re taste:- Stefansson in his book mentioned 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 latter type is much tastier, IMO , though one can get used to and enjoy the taste of the tougher marrow over time.

Re pork fat:- Make sure the pork is pastured/grassfed pork, otherwise avoid it. Most pork in the west is unfortunately very heavily grainfed(I've even heard of claims of pigs fed on 100%(?) grainfed diets).

That Cordain paper is one of the very few really useful sources of info available for us rawpalaeos re marrow and really needs to be added to the general info pages. I'll do that now.

[van]

you might like to try this with any type of marrow, top or bottom bone pieces.  scrape out into bowl, and flatten onto the bowl, thus breaking it fully apart.  Place bowl in  pan or warm water.  You can either place the bowl directly in water that is warm, or above the water sitting on a jar or something.  Cover pot, and in a short time it has melted, or gotten quite soft and pleasant to eat.  I like to dip my meat into the marrow liquid. 

[RawZi]

    Was this pig raised completely in the sun?  Did it/he/she eat grain?  They make D for their fat by living in the sun.  If the pig is rarely outside, the you're getting much less D, but as long as it's eating raw wild nuts, mushrooms, grass, moles etc the fat should have good calories.

    You're the speaker in that video?  I would think you're much younger.

[Adam]

    Was this pig raised completely in the sun?  Did it/he/she eat grain?  They make D for their fat by living in the sun.  If the pig is rarely outside, the you're getting much less D, but as long as it's eating raw wild nuts, mushrooms, grass, moles etc the fat should have good calories.

    You're the speaker in that video?  I would think you're much younger.

Yes they are fed grain free diets ad are out in the sun all day.
What video are you referring to? Its not me.