For the last few hot, muggy days I've been sitting inside with the A/C blasting reading old cook books, saving some recipies and dumping the rest in the trash (cleaning the nest).

I've run across many French, Spanish, and middle eastern recipies that call for bones in either soup or stew.  Every single recipe gives the direction, "Ask the butcher to SAW, not cut, the bones 2-3 inches in length."

I assume the bones are cooked in the stew and soup for marrow...the cooking time would not be long enough to really affect the bones much.  Any idea why the bones need to be sawed rather than chopped or cut?

Has anyone ever made soup or stew this way?  I think I'll try it in the fall when the heat index gets below 105 degrees.

Kath