Marrow Sauce

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4-quart heavy saucepan for warming the sauce
• •3-quart saucepan for scalding and poaching
• •Fine-mesh sieve or small spider
• •Thin, sharp knife
• •Wire whisk for the optional butter finish

Instructions

1. 1

   Chill and cube marrow

   Keep the marrow refrigerator-cold and cut it into neat ½-inch cubes with a thin, sharp knife, wiping the blade between cuts. If the marrow smears instead of cutting cleanly, stop and chill it for 10 minutes. Ça se rattrape. Cold marrow keeps its shape in the water and reaches the sauce as tender cubes rather than rendered fat.

   Ask the butcher for 12 ounces of cleaned marrow rather than a particular weight of bones, whose yield varies considerably.
2. 2

   Scald the parsley

   Reserve 1 cup of the measured water and keep it cold. Bring the remaining water and salt to a full boil in a medium saucepan. Put the chopped parsley in a fine-mesh sieve, lower it into the boiling water for one second, then lift it out immediately. Drain well and press it gently between clean towels. The scald removes the raw edge while keeping the parsley green and distinct.

3. 3

   Poach the marrow

   Return the salted water to a boil, then lower the heat until the surface barely trembles. Slide in the marrow and poach for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the outside turns pale and the cubes feel tender but remain intact. Drain at once and spread them in one layer on a folded towel. If fat begins beading rapidly across the water or the corners of the cubes blur, remove the pan from the heat, pour in the reserved cold water to arrest the cooking, and drain immediately. Ça se rattrape.

   Do not stir the marrow with a spoon. Move the pan gently if the cubes need separating; warm marrow bruises under very little pressure.
4. 4

   Ready the Bordelaise

   Pour the finished Sauce Bordelaise (No. 32) into a 4-quart saucepan and warm it over medium-low heat until it reaches a bare simmer and coats the back of a spoon. This is already a completed sauce, so do not rebuild its reduction or add another seasoning layer. If refrigeration has made it too tight, loosen it with a tablespoon of hot water; if it is thin, simmer briefly before the marrow enters.

5. 5

   Monter au beurre

   If the sauce will accompany vegetables, monter au beurre (mount with butter): take the saucepan completely off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a few cubes at a time, adding each portion only after the last has disappeared. For grilled beef, skip the butter so the sauce keeps its clearer wine-dark character. If the butter separates into an oily rim, put a tablespoon of cold water in a clean saucepan and whisk the broken sauce into it gradually. Ça se rattrape.

   Once mounted, the sauce must not boil. Boiling breaks the emulsion and dulls the clean finish the butter was meant to provide.
6. 6

   Fold in the garnish

   Add the well-drained marrow cubes and scalded parsley to the sauce, folding them through with a broad spoon so the marrow remains whole. Return the pan to the lowest heat for no more than 30 seconds, just long enough to warm the garnish. Never let it simmer now; boiling would empty the cubes into the sauce and undo the careful poach. Serve at once over grilled butcher's meat, or spoon the buttered version generously over vegetables. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask for cleaned beef marrow cores if your butcher sells them. Otherwise, canoe-cut femur bones make extraction easier, but buy by the amount of usable marrow because every bone yields differently.
• •Keep the cubes close to ½ inch. Smaller pieces melt before their centers warm, while large pieces can remain cold and waxy inside.
• •The butter is not a universal improvement. Use it for vegetables, exactly as the source directs; beside grilled beef, the clearer Bordelaise finish has greater definition.
• •Serve the unbuttered sauce with entrecôte, tournedos, or another well-browned cut. A dry red Bordeaux belongs naturally beside it, with enough structure to meet both marrow and reduction.

Advance Preparation

• •Sauce Bordelaise (No. 32) can be prepared up to 2 days ahead, chilled promptly, and reheated gently before the marrow is poached.
• •The raw marrow can be removed from its bones a day ahead and kept covered in cold water in the refrigerator. Drain it thoroughly and chill it well before cubing.
• •Do not combine the sauce, marrow, and parsley ahead of service. The cubes soften and release their fat during holding, so this derivative earns its character in the final minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)