What does bone marrow taste like?
Bone marrow tastes like rich, beefy butter: soft, wobbly and savory, best spread on toast with crunchy salt and something sharp, like a parsley salad, to cut it.
Bone marrow
beefy butter on toast
Roasted bone marrow is the soft, fatty center of a beef leg bone, split lengthwise and roasted until it turns soft and jiggly. You scoop it out with a little spoon and spread it on toast. It tastes like the best part of a roast: deeply beefy, buttery and a touch sweet, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture somewhere between soft butter and custard. On its own it's very rich, which is why it almost always comes with flaky salt, bread and a bright, lemony herb salad. A few bites go a long way.
Where you’ll see it
As a shareable appetizer at steakhouses, gastropubs and French bistros: halved bones roasted and served with toast and parsley salad. It also tops steaks and burgers, and gets melted into broths and sauces.
Order it if you're the person who steals the crispy, fatty bits off everyone's steak.
Quick questions
- Does bone marrow taste weird?
- Not really. It tastes like rich, beefy butter with no strong organ flavor. The soft, wobbly texture is the only thing that surprises people.
- How do you eat bone marrow?
- Scoop it out of the bone with a small spoon, spread it on toast, add a pinch of salt and top it with a bit of the herb salad.