Most people don’t seem to think about bones as an “ingredient” these days. In fact, we go out of our way to avoid bones in the meat, fish or poultry we buy. Partly it’s due to the frantic pace of life these days. Let’s face it, fillets of meat or fish - and those now ubiquitous boneless pork loins in cryovac bags - seem to be a lot faster to prep and cook than the bone-in versions. Then too, people seem to have lost the time, or the knack, to carve and de-bone properly…or maybe to have never learned at all.

Bones, dear readers, are among the best cooking-ingredients and the best flavor-enhancers and “tenderizers” you can buy: Cooking meat, fish or poultry “on the bone” helps to conduct the heat – even while moderating it to perfection – right down to the center of what you’re cooking. And, as the bones heat up, they exude juices, gelatins and fats that self-baste and tenderize, while adding deep layers of extra flavor – both to the main dish and to the pan juices.

A leg of venison, for example, that would be way too tough and dry to eat (unless you marinade it and slow cook it to death) will be tender and juicy – and will taste like venison, instead of marinade, if you cook it on the bone to the rare or medium-rare stage. A whole fish, stuffed and baked on-the-bone, will be a revelation if you’ve never tried it, in terms of flavor and juiciness…and you will be amazed at how easy it is to de-bone it perfectly, when it’s perfectly cooked. If you go back to bones, as we’d urge you to do, at least on occasion, you’ll discover that a boneless pork loin gives only the tiniest hint of the flavor, texture and juiciness a bone-in roast produces. This is equally true when you grill: Try grilling bone-in and boneless sirloin steaks side by side, and taste for yourself.

Good gravy! It’s well nigh impossible, we say, to make a really good sauce, much less good gravy, from a boneless roast…or from a sautéed, boneless cutlet!

Bones, of course, are the indispensable ingredients in lots of special dishes: Like osso bucco, a meltingly rich oxtail ragout (don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it)…or RIBS…

whether barbecued, braised or pan-roasted…or soups: Who but a fool would even try to make beef or chicken soup without bones? Pea soup without a ham bone (or a smoked turkey leg if you don’t eat pork)? No way! Whatever happened to fish soups, we want to know?  A rich stock - made with fish heads (gills removed, of course), fish bones, onions, celery, a carrot and some fresh herbs – with cubed fish and/or shellfish added at the very end, after straining the broth - will produce one of the most delicious, nutritious and low-fat soups you can imagine. And what, we’d ask, to go to the other extreme, can possibly beat a standing rib roast…for pure beefiness, and pure luxuriousness? (Four ribs should be the absolute minimum, we advise…and five or more will make it ten times better. Next day, or the day after, roast those rib bones – maybe “deviled” or with a little barbeque sauce, for a second feast!)

Make no bones about it, bones should really be IN. Find out for yourselves how true the old saying is; “The sweetest meat is closest to the bone.”