I've been making a lot of pork ribs lately, because they're relatively cheap and delicious, not to mention easy. I've also splurged and gotten a beef rib at a barbecue point, and probably will again. Whenever I have ribs, I think about how much of the meal by weight goes to waste, because I (and most Americans) don't eat bone marrow. (If I did eat bone marrow, the outsides of the bones and the cartilage would be all that were left over.)
My late maternal grandfather, whose parents were from Austria and always seemed very European himself, would eat the marrow religiously, which grossed out many of his children. Most Americans I've met who tried it tell me that bone marrow has a weird taste and an appallingly greasy texture. As someone who is particular about both things, I've thus never tried it.
Bone marrow is supposedly some of the richest food on the planet, high in both fat and nutrients, and I've read suggestions that we evolved our big brains by eating bone marrow, being some of only a handful of animals that could get at it (a few animals, like dogs, hyenas, and Tasmanian devils have bone-crushing jaws; out ancestors had hands and rocks).
It looks absolutely delicious; my mouth waters when I look at the open end of a marrowbone. But I can't bring myself to try it, and unlike other foods, nobody has ever egged me on until I did.
So I figured I'd ask you lot: has anybody eaten bone marrow and enjoyed it? Does anybody have any recipes (keeping in mind that I don't eat soup), so as to reduce what might be otherwise overwhelming fattiness?