Steak Night Part 1 – Bone Marrow Rib Eye

We decided to have a themed dinner during the week. Hence, Steak Night was invented. However, there is no point in just cooking some steak. I needed to do something a little different. I got to wondering what I could do to add an additional belt of flavour to some already tasty dry aged rib eye steaks. The first thing to do is to make a tasty sauce using five ingredients – Wine (of course), concentrated beef stock, shallots, salt and pepper.  So what, I hear you say, you’ve made that sauce before. And your’e right. But, what about adding some bone marrow to the mix? Will that give things the hit I think they need?

Side note on good writing: At this stage of any story, a skilled author would start to build some tension. They would sow the seeds of doubt in your mind. Will it work? Can adding some bone marrow really make a difference? Will this cause Conor’s reputation to take a body blow? You get the picture. I’m not a good author. So, I’ll get on with telling you what happened.

Wow! The marrow is fantastic. For clarity (and yes, when it heats, it clarifies) I got the marrow out of the bone using a long spoon and put it directly onto the steak. Here’s a walkthrough.

The first thing to do is to spoon the marrow out of the bone. If this is proving difficult, put the bone in a warm oven for 10 minutes. Then spoon away to your heart’s content.

This is remarkably simple stuff to do.

In the picture above, the cubes are home made, highly concentrated, beef stock. I encourage you to make some and store it in your freezer. It makes a huge difference to sauces and gravies. There is a link here. Season the beef on both sides.

This is almost a gratuitous meat shot. Use plenty of seasoning.

Heat a cast iron pan (skillet) to very hot. rub the meat with a little oil on one side. Place the steaks oiled side down on the pan. Don’t touch it for 4 minutes. Use this time to chop the bone marrow into small pieces. It has the consistency of fat, so prepare for a bit of a mess.

If you want to know how much bone marrow to use for two steaks….

Turn the steaks.

Don’t overcook the steaks. You will regret it.

Sprinkle the steaks with the bone marrow.

This looks a little dodgy at this stage. Don’t fret. The marrow will melt.

The bone marrow will take a couple of minutes to melt into an unctuous liquid that will add great flavour.

Melting bone marrow adds huge flavour.

Turn the steaks and repeat the process. Be careful to not let the steaks overcook.  Let the steaks rest and then serve them with the nice sauce and some potatoes. Delicious.

I will admit that I staged this photo. I normally eat off a plate.

The marrow adds a lovely extra dimension to the steak. I strongly recommend you try it. Don’t bother serving on a board like this. The sauce will go everywhere!