I had some extra marrow bones from making beef stock, so I decided to do something with the marrow. I love marrow's deep, beefy flavor but soft, unctuous texture. It's the closest thing cows have to foie gras. So anyway, it occurred to me that I could use this beefy stuff in mini-burgers.

I soaked the marrow bones in ice water for 20 minutes, then pushed the marrow out with my finger. One didn't come out easily, so I soaked it in warm water for just a minute, then it came out easily. Then I soaked the marrow in ice water for about 24 hours (Thomas Keller says 12 to 24) to remove the blood, changing the water every 6 to 8 hours.

While they were still cold, I drained them and patted them dry with paper towels, then sliced them into 1/2 inch thick rounds. I let them sit out to warm up for about ten minutes, then tossed the rounds in flour to coat. Finally, I browned them with a smidge of oil on medium-high heat, keeping a close watch on them to make sure they didn't completely melt away. Then I drained them on paper towels and put them on some little rounds of toasted bread with some Heinz ketchup.

They turned out pretty well, though I don't know whether I'd bother with it next time; there are definitely better uses for marrow. But these were "cute" in a gimmicky way. And they did taste good. They were nice and beefy, and soft on the inside, but crispy on the outside. Ketchup went very well with the marrow. If I did it again, I'd use better bread that's more similar to normal hamburger bun bread. But in truth, the mini-burgers would still have been better with ground beef. What I think would be a better use for this idea is to make sliders with ground beef, then top each mini-patty of beef with a round of crispy, fatty marrow. Yum.

Posted by Barzelay on 2008/03/09 @ 4:23 | Comments (4) | Meat

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