Bad from the Bone

Splurge and buy a big one. That's the advice we get from Family Circle's What's for Dinner Meal Planning Cookbook when it comes to smoked tongue. "When nutritious smoked tongue is on the menu, splurge and buy a big one, for it can be served in so many ways. Here it's sliced hot to eat with a tangy fruit sauce. What's left will keep well for sandwiches or a supper meat-and-salad plate." What's worse than tongue for dinner? Leftover tongue for dinner, I suspect. But no tongue for us today. Today's recipe is from yet another, heretofore unexplored, part of the cow - the bones! My question is, why would you ruin perfectly good dumplings by adding beef bone marrow? Protein? Not really necessary when they are to be served atop a beef stew. I suspect it's - as the PA Dutch say - just for so. Wouldn't want to waste valuable bones, would we?

MARROW DUMPLINGS

Beef marrow from a 3- to 4-inch beef marrowbone (1/2 cup mashed)
1 egg
1 cup soft bread crumbs (2 slices)
1 TBS. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Cut out marrow from bone with a sharp, thin-blade knife; mash and place in a small bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients until well blended. Form lightly into marble-size balls. Set in a shallow pan; chill at least one hour. (Dumplings hold their shape better when chilled before cooking.) Makes about 12 dumplings. [Arrange dumplings on top of a bubbling beef stew; cover and cook five minutes.]
What's for Dinner Meal Planning Cookbook, Family Circle, Inc., 1963