Got me some veal cheeks!

[carswell]

Just scored some beautiful veal cheeks for tomorrow's dinner. It will be the first time I've cooked the tasty tidbits. Was thinking of a simple braise (browned in butter with aromatic vegetables like leeks, carrots and a bit of celery; flavoured with thyme, bay, juniper and a soupçon of garlic; braised in white wine and veal stock for a couple of hours) but wondered if anyone had a knockout preparation or useful advice to share. Am surprised not to find a single recipe in my nearly 200 cookbooks or on epicurious, Recipe Source, etc. I plan to cut the cheeks into large pieces and know they need to be carefully trimmed of fat and gristle. Beef cheek recipes often call for a 24-hour marinade, but is that necessary with cheeks from a young animal? By the way, my frame of reference is French: a bottle of youngish red Burgundy will be poured and the sides will be a wild mushroom ragout and Yukon Golds mashed with Pied-de-Vent cheese.

[kayswv]

The January or February issue of Bon Appetit had a Mario Batali recipe for beef cheeks that did not have a marinade time anywhere approaching 24 hours. I know that his Babbo website has one of his beef cheek recipes on it. This might also give you so ideas. If you check the What did we have for dinner thread on I believe about the current page or the page before Bilrus has a link to his website with the recipe section displayed.

I think it is great you were able to find the cheeks. I have a request into our butcher shop to see if they can special order them for me and the butcher wanted to know what else they were called?????? as he hadn't heard of them. Hello!!!

Let us know what you finally decide to do.

How on earth did you find them? Kay

[carswell]

How on earth did you find them?

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The Jean-Talon Market is one of the jewels in Montreal's gastronomic crown. A new extension that opened in December houses a slew of interesting shops: an olive and spice merchant; the city's best ice cream maker; a Polish bakery with incredible prune-filled donuts; a smoked fish shop; two organic butchers; a raw-milk cheese shop; a cookbook store; a cooking supplies store; etcetera; and a shop devoted to sale of veal and lamb from the Charlevoix, the beautiful mountainous region down river from Quebec City. Not only did they have veal cheeks, they're practically giving them away: 2½ pounds cost me all of US$5.

Will report on what I did with them and how they turned out.

[iriee]

sounds great the way your preparing them! im on my way! haaaaa!

[dls]

I agree with iriee - your method sounds good to me. A recipe that I used not too long ago from Emeril Legrasse can be found here. BTW - for more recipes, simply go Google and type in "veal cheek recipe".

[cricklewood]

How on earth did you find them?

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The Jean-Talon Market is one of the jewels in Montreal's gastronomic crown. A new extension that opened in December houses a slew of interesting shops: an olive and spice merchant; the city's best ice cream maker; a Polish bakery with incredible prune-filled donuts; a smoked fish shop; two organic butchers; a raw-milk cheese shop; a cookbook store; a cooking supplies store; etcetera; and a shop devoted to sale of veal and lamb from the Charlevoix, the beautiful mountainous region down river from Quebec City. Not only did they have veal cheeks, they're practically giving them away: 2½ pounds cost me all of US$5.

Will report on what I did with them and how they turned out.

←

Damn with school and work taking up most of my time I have not had a chance to get in to see the new shops at the market... you got the veal cheeks that cheap?? wich shop is it the one with the charlevoix products? I`m going to head out there pronto myself.

Edited March 13, 2005 by cricklewood (log)

[culinary bear]

Daube provencale is sublime when made with ox cheek.

[Lowblow]

Just scored some beautiful veal cheeks for tomorrow's dinner. It will be the first time I've cooked the tasty tidbits. Was thinking of a simple braise (browned in butter with aromatic vegetables like leeks, carrots and a bit of celery; flavoured with thyme, bay, juniper and a soupçon of garlic; braised in white wine and veal stock for a couple of hours) but wondered if anyone had a knockout preparation or useful advice to share. Am surprised not to find a single recipe in my nearly 200 cookbooks or on epicurious, Recipe Source, etc. I plan to cut the cheeks into large pieces and know they need to be carefully trimmed of fat and gristle. Beef cheek recipes often call for a 24-hour marinade, but is that necessary with cheeks from a young animal? By the way, my frame of reference is French: a bottle of youngish red Burgundy will be poured and the sides will be a wild mushroom ragout and Yukon Golds mashed with Pied-de-Vent cheese.

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The last time I cooked them I served them braised on creme fraiche mashed potato with porcini spiked braising jus. I remember that I braised them with white wine and dark veal stock, Plus some porcini essence I make my self. Then when I served them added some amazing sauteed fresh small porcini mushrooms to the jus . I decided against red as I though it might over power the flavours a little.

[carswell]

Damn with school and work taking up most of my time I have not had a chance to get in to see the new shops at the market... you got the veal cheeks that cheap?? wich shop is it the one with the charlevoix products? I`m going to head out there pronto myself.

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They were C$4.99 a kilo. Given the high amount of prep time and waste, I understand the price better now, though they're still a best buy. Yes, it's the Veau de Charlevoix store in the north wing, between the organic pork store and Le Tartarin. If you don't see them in the refrigerator compartment, ask one of the clerks; they may have others in back. Oh, and for some reason they call them bajoues, not joues.

[carswell]

The last time I cooked them I served them braised on creme fraiche mashed potato with porcini spiked braising jus. I remember that I braised them with white wine and dark veal stock, Plus some porcini essence I make my self. Then when I served them  added some amazing sauteed fresh small porcini mushrooms to the jus . I decided against  red as I though it might over power the flavours a little.

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Agree that red wine or even Marsala would risk eclipsing their delicate flavour, though not their melting texture.

I prepared them much as planned: I browned about 1½ pounds of trimmed cheeks in a mixture of butter and oil, set them aside, and sautéed a mirepoix of onion, carrot and celery (50-25-25) in the remaining fat. When the veggies began to colour, I returned the cheeks to the pan along with two crushed canned plum tomatoes, two crushed and peeled garlic cloves and a bouquet garni (parsley stems, thyme sprigs, a small sprig of rosemary, 2 fresh bay leaves, 6 juniper berries, 10 peppercorns and 4–5 fennel seeds), sprinkled everything with salt, poured in about 2/3 cup each of white wine and veal stock and brought the liquid to a boil. After turning the heat to low, I covered the pan and simmered until the meat was tender, a bit over 2 hours. At that point, I removed the cheeks, strained the sauce, returned the meat and sauce to the pan and corrected the seasoning. Don't know which was better, the taste or the cut-it-with-a-spoon texture. And, if anything, the leftovers were even more delicious.

Yukon golds mashed with stinky Pied-de-Vent cheese were a wonderful rich accompaniment. It was also clear that, as many recipes suggest, polenta would work well too.

Dinner was late, however, because it took me far longer than anticipated to remove the silvery membrane from each cheek. Even with newly sharpened Henckels, gaining a purchase on the slippery meat was difficult. And each cheek seemed to require a different approach: slicing, shaving, prying, etc. Am surprised I didn't cut myself in the process which, with the occasional break, took nearly two hours to complete. Though it went faster toward the end, I'd still love to see how a chef does this. The other surprise was the amount of waste: the pile of trimings was almost as big as the pile of trimmed cheeks. Still, they were good enough that I'll be making them again.

Thanks to all who replied.

Edited March 17, 2005 by carswell (log)

[cricklewood]

Carswell, thanks for the heads up. I headed to Jean Talon on monday I had sometime in between school and work. I bought some frozen veal cheeks and a lamb liver, I really like the new shops in the extension and the products from ethe charlevoix store we're nice, prices are pretty decent, saw some surprises like lamb sweetbreads(a first, never seen them at a butchers it's always veal). I should have some time to cook them next week will post a report, I was thinking of braising them in some stock and beer, I have had good experience braising veal(shanks) with trois pistoles beer but I think I might try wine. More to come

[LindaK]

Dinner was late, however, because it took me far longer than anticipated to remove the silvery membrame from each cheek.

Hi, stupid question perhaps, but I assume you're talking about removing the membrane pre-cooking, n'est-ce pas? I've found that with short ribs for example that the deboning, prep time, etc. takes much longer than expected. I can imagine that pulling the membrane off after cooking would be fairly easy though much messier.

[carswell]

I assume you're talking about removing the membrane pre-cooking, n'est-ce pas? I've found that with short ribs for example that the deboning, prep time, etc. takes much longer than expected.  I can imagine that pulling the membrane off after cooking would be fairly easy though much messier.

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Sorry about the typo. But, yes, prior to cooking. After my first few attempts at removing the membrane from the raw meat, I considered leaving it on but decided not to for reasons aesthetic and nutritional (some ugly fat was attached; the skinned meat is quite lean). Also, not removing it would have prevented me from browning one side (i.e. half) of each medallion-shapped piece, and I suspected that, as with most veal stews, good browning would be key to developing flavour. In the interest of science, I guess I should have left a cheek or two au naturel. Oh, well, next time.

edit: By the way, membrane may not be the best word to describe something that was, in places, as thick as leather and about as tough as Kelvar. I see Emeril calls it "silverskin" in the recipe that dls linked to.

Edited March 17, 2005 by carswell (log)

[carswell]

Carswell, thanks for the heads up. I headed to Jean Talon on monday I had sometime in between school and work. I bought some frozen veal cheeks and a lamb liver, I really like the new shops in the extension and the products from ethe charlevoix store we're nice, prices are pretty decent, saw some surprises like lamb sweetbreads(a first, never seen them at a butchers it's always veal). I should have some time to cook them next week will post a report, I was thinking of braising them in some stock and beer, I have had good experience braising veal(shanks) with trois pistoles beer but I think I might try wine. More to come

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The extension is great. I've been about a dozen times and am still being surprised.

Don't see why beer wouldn't work. Let us know what you do and how it turns out.

[cricklewood]

Ok so here's the report. Sunday morning I started prepping my veal cheek braise, I had 4 packages(wanted leftovers for lunch this week) and I do agree it is a lot of prepping, took about 40minutes-50 minutes, while i'm used to trimming meat because of school , the cheeks are tricky because the meat is so "flasque" that it's hard to use the pull off method to remove the silverskin, I actually found the ones that we're still slightly frozen to be easier to work with. Once ready I seasoned and seared them in a hot pan to color nicely, removed meat to my roasting pan and deglazed the saute pan with some red wine(about one cup), poured that over the meat , sweated some veggies(leeks,carrots) and threw in a couple of crushed garlic cloves, a bouquet garni, bay leaf, some cippolini onions and beeft stock. Braised at 250-275F for something like 5 hours. Removed the meat , strained(kept onions) and reduced sauce, served with some mashed potato(with chevre and chives mixed in) and some vichy carrots. Result...damn good, tender,buttery,melt in the mouth, these are worth the trouble, really succulent meat.

[carswell]

Thanks for the report, crickle. Your approach sounds great. Carrots would be a perfect side. Forgot to mention earlier that the clerk at the Veau de Charlevoix store could not stop telling me and everyone else within earshot that cheeks make the absolute best blanquette de veau, especially with lots of carrots. Also, a couple of days ago I was sharing my discovery with a French friend. He knew all about the store and the cheeks and scoffed at the idea of trimming off anything but the fat. He leaves the silverskin on and says it softens completely with long cooking and, if anything, adds moelleux* to the dish. This goes against the advice of the people at the store and every recipe I've seen, but I'll try it soon and report back.

*Hard to translate. Unctuousness? Butteriness? Meltingness?

[ElsieD]

On 3/21/2005 at 10:24 PM, carswell said:

Thanks for the report, crickle. Your approach sounds great. Carrots would be a perfect side. Forgot to mention earlier that the clerk at the Veau de Charlevoix store could not stop telling me and everyone else within earshot that cheeks make the absolute best blanquette de veau, especially with lots of carrots. Also, a couple of days ago I was sharing my discovery with a French friend. He knew all about the store and the cheeks and scoffed at the idea of trimming off anything but the fat. He leaves the silverskin on and says it softens completely with long cooking and, if anything, adds moelleux* to the dish. This goes against the advice of the people at the store and every recipe I've seen, but I'll try it soon and report back.

*Hard to translate. Unctuousness? Butteriness? Meltingness?

 

Did you try it?