Beef Fat

I am off to London on Monday to talk about FAT and I have discovered that suet (veal/beef kidney fat) is in short supply. I'm shocked. I think of England as being the home of suet - steak and kidney pudding, jam roly-poly, steamed pudding, mincemeat and so on. Perhaps that is the problem - these are all winter dishes not popular when the weather warms up.
I am not making any of these classics, the suet is for a fruit cobbler, fruit topped with suet biscuits or, as I can finally say since I'll be in England, scones, instead of butter as the fat I use finely grated suet. This was one of my discoveries while writing Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes.
I made scones using all sorts of fat and the suet scones were my favourite -rich but light.
Another favourite beef fat is marrow and roasted marrow bones are easy to make at home. I used to buy my bones cut into pieces cross-wise, now I ask my butcher for large pieces of femur cut lengthwise, just look at these beautiful ones my Paris butcher M Joël Lachable prepared for me.


Simply soak them overnight in salted water to remove the blood then roast them in a very hot oven and serve with fleur de sel and toast. The advantage of cutting the bones this way is that it they cook more quickly and it's easier to remove the marrow, no need for a fancy marrow spoon just a teaspoon or even just your knife.

Of course when I served them I totally forgot about taking a photograph, I was desperate to get at that marrow while it was still warm. However, here is a photo of the same dish at one of my favourite Paris restaurants Ribouldingue. You can read about what else I've eaten there in a previous post.
















Mine looked just as good. If you love bone marrow try making this at home. The hardest part is preparing enough warm toast.