You’ll have no bones with this meaty brunch pairing, and the eating irons are optional
Only the Queen was permitted a fork; thus was the table etiquette in the royal court during the reign of Mary of Tudor, a monarch whose rather fiery relationship with protestants earned her the nickname Bloody Mary.
Today’s decadent Sunday Brunch cocktail recipe uses roasted bone marrow, an ingredient which has been a delicacy in the Britain since the feasts of Anglo Saxon nobles, who were early adopters of napkins and table cloths.
It wasn’t until after the Tudor era that cutlery was first introduced to upper class dining tables and the uncouth tradition of tucking into meat and bones with bare fingers was abolished.
Francais Hawkins wrote in his 1646 book on table manners, ‘Suck no bones… Take them not with two hands… Gnaw them not… Knock no bones upon thy bread, or trencher, to get out the marrow of them, but get out the marrow with a knife… To speake better… it is not fit to handle bones, and much lesse to mouth them.’
By the Georgian period a fully equipped cutlery draw was social necessity, and no well-to-do household would be without a set of silver marrow spoons, designed for elegantly scooping the precious jelly from bones.
A favourite dish of the English gentry, bone marrow was standard fare in a full English breakfast until the 1900s and no hoity-toity dinner would be complete without succulent roasted marrow on toast and a bowl of bone broth soup.
Broken Clock Vodka’s recipe comes from Georgian books and botanicals and our 18th century inspired Bloody Mary has a delicious meatiness thanks to the inclusion of copped, roasted marrow. We add a splash of Port, a popular tipple at the time as Claret was boycotted due to the perpetual war with France.
INGREDIENTS
50 ml Broken Clock Vodka
20 g Bone Marrow (Finely Chopped)
150 ml Pressed Tomato Juice
10 ml Port
10 ml Lemon Juice
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
½ tsp Tabasco Sauce
Pinch Black Pepper
Pinch Celery Salt
Pinch Sugar
Garnish
Celery stick
Lemon Wedge
METHOD
Season the bone marrow and roast for 14 minutes in an oven at 200 c.
For the cocktail, combine the ingredients thoroughly in a mixing jar and allow to infuse for 10 minutes. Pour into a glass over plenty of ice and add the garnish.