except insofar as it contains bone marrow, is of little use to the cook save for making stock for soups. It may, however, be of indirect use; it is often said that meat cooked on the bone has more flavour than meat without the bone.
Experiments carried out by Papin (1681) with his ‘New Digester or Engine for Softning Bones’ (see pressure cooking), and repeated by Davidson (1988a), show that bones cooked under pressure for sufficiently long will disintegrate, yielding both marrowfat and a pulp which can be used for thickening sauces and kindred purposes. In this way bones can be eaten. They are rich in calcium.
This applies to bones of animals and birds. Those of fish, although they too can be used to produce stock for soups, are different in that they have no marrow. Indeed, in many languages there is a different word for fish bones, no doubt because the small ones are perceived as a nuisance; those who have not taken the trouble to learn how to separate the flesh of a fish from all its bones, large or small, often find themselves greatly inconvenienced by the latter.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Papin, Denys (1681), A New Digester or Engine for Softning Bones, facsimile edn, St Louis: Mallinckrodt Food Classics.
