How to Cook Marrow Bones for Soup

Here is how to cook marrow bones for soup. Roast them for half an hour, or blanch them if you want a lighter soup, then simmer them in water with an onion for 3 to 4 hours, pushing the soft marrow out of the bones and into the pot along the way. Strain it, and you have a rich, savory broth to build a simple vegetable and barley soup on.

Marrow bones are leg bones with soft marrow in the center. They carry little meat, and they do not set a broth as firmly as knuckle bones do, but the marrow melts into the soup and gives it a round, buttery richness that plain stock does not have.

At a glance: serves 4 to 6. Prep 15 minutes, cook about 4 3/4 hours, almost all of it hands-off.

Gray Shipley, who runs the farm, was talking about the interest in cooking with every part of the animal:

“I think we're seeing people paying attention to all of the different cuts and, and using all animal cooking with tallow is kind of a hot trend right now.”

Gray Shipley

Marrow bones are one of those parts, and soup is one of the simplest ways to use them: a few hours of quiet simmering, and their richness ends up in every spoonful.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef marrow bones
• 3 quarts cold water
• 2 onions: 1 halved for the broth, 1 chopped for the soup
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, or fat skimmed from the broth
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery ribs, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup pearl barley, rinsed, or 3 ounces egg noodles
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes (optional)
• 2 cups chopped kale or cabbage
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Lay the bones on a foil-lined sheet pan and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until browned at the edges. For a lighter, clearer soup, blanch them instead: cover them with cold water, boil for 10 minutes, then drain and rinse.
2. Put the bones in a large pot, with any fat and browned juices from the pan. Add the cold water, the halved onion, bay leaf and peppercorns. Bring slowly to a simmer, skimming off the foam, then turn the heat down to a bare simmer.
3. After 1 hour, lift the bones out one at a time with tongs and push the softened marrow out into the pot with the handle of a wooden spoon or a butter knife. Return the bones to the pot.
4. Simmer, partly covered, for 2 to 3 hours more, topping up with hot water if the bones start to poke out.
5. Strain the broth into a bowl. You should have about 8 cups; add water if you have less. Skim off as much fat as you like, saving a tablespoon for the soup. Stir in the salt.
6. Wipe out the pot. Heat the oil or fat over medium heat and cook the chopped onion, carrots and celery for 6 to 8 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
7. Add the broth, the barley and the tomatoes, if using. Simmer, partly covered, for 35 to 40 minutes, until the barley is tender.
8. Stir in the kale and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until wilted. If you are using noodles instead of barley, add them with the kale and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until tender. Taste for salt, stir in the parsley and serve.

Add 2 lb beef marrow bones to cart

Roast or blanch?

Roasting gives a deeper, browner soup with a toasty flavor. Blanching gives a cleaner, paler one, closer to a light broth, because it rinses off the blood and bits that would cloud the pot. Both work. For a hearty barley soup, roast. For a clear broth to pour over noodles, blanch.

How long to cook beef soup bones

Simmering times depend on the bones and on what you want from them. As a guide, at a bare simmer on the stove:

• Marrow bones, for a rich soup base: 3 to 4 hours.
• Meaty soup bones, such as shank or neck: 3 to 4 hours, until the meat falls off the bone.
• Knuckle and joint bones, for a broth that sets firmly: 8 to 12 hours, or longer for bone broth.
• In an electric pressure cooker: about 1 hour at high pressure for marrow or meaty bones, 2 to 3 hours for knuckle and joint bones.

Whatever the bones, keep the pot at a bare simmer the whole time. A rolling boil churns the marrow fat into the broth and turns it cloudy and greasy.

How to make bone marrow soup richer or lighter

For a richer soup, leave more of the fat in the broth, or roast an extra marrow bone and serve the marrow on toast alongside. For a lighter one, chill the strained broth overnight and lift off the fat before you make the soup. Marrow is mostly fat, so most of what it gives the soup is richness and body rather than beefy flavor. If you want more beef flavor, add a pound of meaty soup bones to the pot.

How to cook soup bones for other soups

The broth is a good base for more than barley. Use it for a beef and vegetable soup, an onion soup, or a bowl of noodles with greens and a soft egg. The method stays the same: brown or blanch the bones, simmer them low, and strain.

Food safety

Broth simmered for hours is far past any FSIS cooking temperature. Cool what you do not eat quickly, refrigerate it, and reheat leftover soup to 165 degrees F, the FSIS figure for leftovers. See the FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart.