# Could you actually make bread from bones? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495 "2008-08-28T01:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/1 "2008-08-28T01:12:14Z")
Like giants do in fairy tales. Could you actually do that with appropriate equipment? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/2 "2008-08-28T01:24:37Z")
[Bone Meal?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonemeal) Bone meal has no gluten or other yeasty, bready things. All you’d have is nasty cooked bone meal. [You can add some small amount of bone meal to bread flour](http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FBJN%2FBJN11_02%2FS0007114557000288a.pdf&code=85ef3d0d4ce78d34a467b20ce538f628) but not sure how that tastes. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/3 "2008-08-28T01:25:57Z")
I don’t see why you couldn’t put some bonemeal into the dough, but I’m not sure an all-bone loaf would work. Why don’t you try one cup of bonemeal in your regular recipe, and see how that works? (Note: I do not advocate the killing of any Englishmen, for breadmaking purposes or otherwise.) To be fair to the giants, though, I don’t think they ever actually make such loaves, much less eat them; they just threaten. ETA: Drat you, **astro**! Faster on the submit button, with a link no less. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/4 "2008-08-28T01:27:32Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/5 "2008-08-28T01:28:05Z")
With no sugars for the yeast to process, you would not get any CO2. So all-bone meal would have to rise from the action of eggs or (more likely) baking soda (or am I off on that?). In any case, at some point it is no longer bread. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/6 "2008-08-28T02:21:13Z")
Well, you couldn’t make yeast-risen bread, but you could make a flatbread. Like a tortilla or an Indian chapatti, patted out into a thin cake and baked on a hot stone. Wet bone meal will cake up like a mudpie, and you could squish it into something bake-able. So yeah, the giant _could_ have ground his bones to make his bread, as long as by “bread” you don’t insist on yeast bread. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/7 "2008-08-28T02:24:41Z")
What about the nourishing marrowbone jelly? The giant didn’t specify which part of the bone he’d be using. ---
**Author:** ![Bravo\_Romeo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bravo\_Romeo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bravo_Romeo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/8 "2008-08-28T08:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] With no sugars for the yeast to process, you would not get any CO2. So all-bone meal would have to rise from the action of eggs or (more likely) baking soda (or am I off on that?). In any case, at some point it is no longer bread. [/QUOTE] Could you add some sort of sugar product for the yeast to act upon, and have… _sweet_ bone-bread? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/9 "2008-08-28T10:47:23Z")
You will need some protien to coagulate. I think you would just be adding bone to bread mix since I don’t think that the bone will do anything essential in the bread process. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/10 "2008-08-28T13:22:42Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] Well, you couldn’t make yeast-risen bread, but you could make a flatbread. Like a tortilla or an Indian chapatti, patted out into a thin cake and baked on a hot stone. Wet bone meal will cake up like a mudpie, and you could squish it into something bake-able. So yeah, the giant _could_ have ground his bones to make his bread, as long as by “bread” you don’t insist on yeast bread. [/QUOTE] The problem is that bonemeal won’t have the cohesion of gluten-filled wheat paste, or even starch-covered tortilla/polenta/risotto. So with bonemeal and water you wouldn’t get a chapati; just a pile of bonemeal that falls apart as soon as the heat dries it out again (like a dried-out sandcastle). ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/11 "2008-08-28T17:06:49Z")
Well, if he’s going to grind up fresh bones (because the story doesn’t actually say, “I’ll steam your bones, and _then_ grind them”, it just says “I’ll grind your bones”), presumably the marrow would be in with it, which is fat, which would probably serve to glue it together into a reasonable simulacrum of a chapatti. I still think it could work. I love this place. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/12 "2008-08-28T17:16:37Z")
[QUOTE=astro] [Bone Meal?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonemeal) Bone meal has no gluten or other yeasty, bready things. All you’d have is nasty cooked bone meal. [You can add some small amount of bone meal to bread flour](http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FBJN%2FBJN11_02%2FS0007114557000288a.pdf&code=85ef3d0d4ce78d34a467b20ce538f628) but not sure how that tastes. [/QUOTE] As to texture, rather than taste, it would be rather gritty. Ever taste a dog biscuit? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/13 "2008-08-28T18:37:01Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] I still think it could work. I love this place. 😃 [/QUOTE] Given the other advanced experimental work other GQ threads have prompted, surely we can get a volunteer to make the test? I would, however, encourage the use of beef soup bones rather than the bones of an Englishmun. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/14 "2008-08-28T18:44:12Z")
While the marrow could contain some protien to form the bread, I don’t think it is enough to compensate for the large quantity of essentially useless calcium phosphate powder. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/15 "2008-08-28T19:50:43Z")
Maybe an egg matrix, then, with some form of acid-and-base leavening? Although that might be more of a fluffy, gritty omelette than “bread”, per se. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/16 "2008-08-28T19:53:20Z")
[QUOTE=Quercus] The problem is that bonemeal won’t have the cohesion of gluten-filled wheat paste, or even starch-covered tortilla/polenta/risotto. So with bonemeal and water you wouldn’t get a chapati; just a pile of bonemeal that falls apart as soon as the heat dries it out again (like a dried-out sandcastle). [/QUOTE] At best, you might get a very crumbly bone-cookie. Bone meal has been used to adulterate flour in the past (not sure if this was the content of **astro** ’s link - because it isn’t working for me) [http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/32/3/340](http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/32/3/340) ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/17 "2008-08-28T20:01:39Z")
If you are gonna try this, be sure to use bone-meal not contaminated with lead or bovine spongiform encephalopathy organisms!!! ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/18 "2008-08-28T20:21:46Z")
“Bread” used to have a more broader meaning: A piece or morsel of food, entymologically related to the word “break”. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/19 "2008-08-28T20:22:21Z")
I’m normally very much on board for culinary experiments, but this one does nothing for me. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495/20 "2008-08-28T20:23:48Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] “Bread” used to have a more broader meaning: A piece or morsel of food, entymologically related to the word “break”. [/QUOTE] Interestingly, ‘meat’ was once similarly generic. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-actually-make-bread-from-bones/461495.md?page=2)