Beef/Ox Cheeks in the UK.

[david goodfellow]

I asked the butcher that I buy my game from if he sold beef (ox) cheeks? as whenever we eat them in a restaurant, we drool over them.

I can't remember his exact words, but I'm sure he said that he could not buy the head of the animal. If that is the case, and I may have my facts mixed up, how are restaurants able to serve it?

[sheepish]

Waitrose have them as part of their forgotton cuts range. I very rarely shop there but if I see they have cheeks I buy all they have! So they certainly are available. I have a few sheep I farm each year, and I can never get the heads back from the abbattoir, because I want the tongues and brains, so there must be a special arrangement going on somewhere!

[MaLO]

I have also asked a number of butchers for beef cheeks and have received the same response, although none seem certain what it is they can or can’t sell. Waitrose do have them but not in all shops, as do The Ginger Pig in London. Donald Russell on line butchers also supplies them - both ox and calf.

I ate one from Ginger Pig last night as a beef & kidney pudding!

Martin.

[Prawncrackers]

Are you guys flipping psychic or something? I just picked up about 4lbs of finest Hereford Ox cheeks this morning from my local farmer's market. I did have to ask for them in advance a month ago but they were happy to sell them. They are out there David, in fact the farmer this morning had a load left. PM me if you want their number, they are in coincidently in Hereford.

[david goodfellow]

Are you guys flipping psychic or something? I just picked up about 4lbs of finest Hereford Ox cheeks this morning from my local farmer's market. I did have to ask for them in advance a month ago but they were happy to sell them. They are out there David, in fact the farmer this morning had a load left. PM me if you want their number, they are in coincidently in Hereford.

[/quote

Thanks ever so much for your offer, sadly I am too far from Hereford to make it anyway worthwhile.

I will however bear it in mind if I plan a visit out that way.

Enjoy your prize and if you get chance can you point me in the direction as to who's recipe that you use.

[Prawncrackers]

Well I started cooking the two largest pieces of Ox cheek last night. All the recipes i'd Googled were just variations on the bourguinon theme so that's what i did. I wasn't sure whether they would fall apart so i tied them up just in case then browned them off in a pan then transferred them to a casserole. In the same pan i softened some mirepoix with garlic and deglazed the whole lot with half a bottle of shiraz (it was what i had to hand). After tipping all that into the casserole i topped up the braising liqour with some liquid beef stock and added some tomato puree, bay, thyme and a star anise (if i had an orange i'd have added a strip of zest too). I braised it last night for 4 hrs at around 135-140C and let it sit overnight.

Tonight i was confident that it wouldn't fall apart so i removed the string and strained the gravy. I reduced the gravy before adding the meat back to reheat gently for serving. The result was spectacularly tasty, the last time my wife and I had this was at Purnells a few weeks ago, she declared that it was as good. The meat held its shape until the very moment you sunk a fork into it when it just collapses into a soft pile of gelatinous beefiness - magic darts! I'm well chuffed but to be honest i think it's a very forgiving cut of meat to cook. In tribute to Purnells i made some more toffee cumin carrots to go with it as well as creamy celeriac mash and cabbage.

The best thing is I've still got four portions of it left in the freezer. I think an Ox Cheek Rendang is in order soon.

[david goodfellow]

Not tried Glyn,s toffee cumin carrot recipe yet, but oh yes those beef cheeks he serves up are memorable.

Sounds(and looks like) a fantastic result from a humble cut of meat, I will try to emulate your efforts when I locate those elusive cheeks.

I just thought of a small local abattior who may be able to help, will give them a call later.

Fingers crossed.

Edited December 1, 2009 by david goodfellow (log)

[dougal]

IIRC mine were £3.99 a kilo (full price) at Waitrose.

Diced, browned, casserole in an approx 95°C oven for about 5 hours with tomato, dead red wine, etc.

Lovely!

Definitely something to watch for.

Might be an idea to ask (or even phone) to try and get some reserved/ordered. Dunno how general it might be, but my branch can be very helpful with that sort of thing.

[david goodfellow]

Just phoned my local abattoir and the lady told me that they are not allowed to sell beef cheeks to the public, but not to be deterred I also contacted a catering butcher who seems fairly confident that he can supply me with some.

Watch this space

[david goodfellow]

Well the catering butcher just phoned back with the good news that he can supply me with Ox cheeks, it normally takes two or three days depending on what they slaughter, he said they are £1.50lb so I snapped his hand off and ordered half a dozen to get the ball rolling

Seems to be a bit of a grey area as to who can and who can not supply,

Any slaughter men/women out there can help?

[apshelbourne]

@prawncrackers

If you're thinking of a rendang, do try Dos Hermanos' recipe. It's the biz.

[Prawncrackers]

Thanks for the recipe link apshelbourne, those two hermanos love to eat don't they, i check their blog on occasion but have never seen them cook anything before!

I've made plenty of rendang in the past couple of years as it's a big favourite. My recipe has a different spicing and finish to theirs but the technique is similar, I've got it just the way i like it . I'm excited about using Ox cheek for rendang, it should be the perfect cut for it.

[nbaines]

I've often thought about ox cheeks but always forget to ask my butcher when I pop in.

Prawncrackers - Your photos are gorgeous and I'm inspired by them. Just got off the phone to butchers and awaiting the call back for when and how much they'll be.

[david goodfellow]

Well, I collected my Ox cheeks from the catering butcher, 5 for £7.60 they really are cheap as chips.

There was a quite a bit of waste on them, however I think that I over trimmed them mainly because the wife really objects to fat/gristle, no matter how I tried to explain how it dissolves in the slow cooking process.

I remembered eating a Jason Atherton dish at Maze which included Ox cheeks and googled it, and followed it roughly except that I reduced the port, but still put in a bottle of wine which makes the cheap cut quite a bit more expensive.

Marinating them overnight was specified in the recipe and I tried cooking them in a slow cooker that I bought some time ago but have only used the once. On reflection I wished that I had added a strip of orange peel, as Prawncrackers suggested, I did however add carrots, leek, onions, celery, bay leaf, star anise, thyme, oregano and cooked the lot for seven hours on medium heat. Everything except the stock was retained in the cooker and the stock was reduced by half and butter was added to enrich the sauce further.

As you may imagine the end result was divine,it was served with fluffy, creamy potato mash and some mange tout.

In Jason's recipe, he bins the veg but I could not bring myself to discard so much flavor, so devoured it with the cheeks.

On reflection once you have cooked this dish its easy peasy to do it again and of course its well worth the effort

[PoppySeedBagel]

I've also got into cooking beef cheeks recently - there's a lovely Alistair Little recipe for beef daube for whcih he recommends them. My local butcher will order them for me. I can remember cooking them for the dog when I was in my teens. It's amazing how delicious they are is, and I love cooking something so good that costs so little.

I've also had pigs cheeks from my butcher - lovely nutty little morsels. I didn't need to order those as the local restaurants buy them regularly.

[david goodfellow]

I've also got into cooking beef cheeks recently - there's a lovely Alistair Little recipe for beef daube for whcih he recommends them. My local butcher will order them for me. I can remember cooking them for the dog when I was in my teens. It's amazing how delicious they are is, and I love cooking something so good that costs so little.

I've also had pigs cheeks from my butcher - lovely nutty little morsels. I didn't need to order those as the local restaurants buy them regularly.

We literally have just eaten the last two cheeks tonight, which were quite large and unfortunatly a little too gelatinous and we found them hard work. I served them with mash and some savoy cabbage sauted with lardons and double cream which worked very well.

Next time I buy them I will go for smaller ones.

Interesting that you should mention Alistair Little's recipe, I,m looking at the photograph of the dish now. I bought his book Keep it Simple back in 1993 when he was one of the most talked about chefs on the London dining scene.

The dish looks great on paper and screams "eat me"

Pigs cheeks are on my to do list, however top of the list is blade of beef, again cheap as chips but bags of flavour.

If I can achieve anywhere near the quality Glyn Purnell puts on the plate, I shall be a very happy bunny indeed

Edited January 12, 2010 by david goodfellow (log)

[lesliec]

Seems to me beef cheeks might reward sous vide treatment. Anybody tried? Recipe suggestions?

[infernooo]

Some good beef cheek recipes!

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/beef_cheek_onion_and_stout_pies_with_thyme_and_onion_pastry.htm

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/beef_cheek_ravioli_with_mandarin_mustard_fruits.htm

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/beef_cheeks_with_creamed_swede.htm

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/braised_beef_cheeks_in_sarsaparilla.htm

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/beef_cheek_with_red_wine_and_saffron_risotto.htm

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/braised-pork-cheeks-with-farro-perlato.htm