Posted in Food Musings, Nose-to-Tail, Recipes
Beef Cheek Ragu
Beef cheeks can be a little hard to find. Legislation passed in the wake of the BSE scare of the mid 1990s meant they were completely off menu for quite some time and even now a quiet word in your butcher’s ear will likely be necessary to score the bounty.
A general rule of meat cookery runs thus – the more work it does, the longer it cooks. A beef cheek is probably the natural end point of the scale. There aren’t many calories in grass so – being a ruminant – a cow has to get through an awful lot before it feels full and it’s all got to be chewed. At least twice. That’s a lot of work.
The upshot of this is a supremely tasty fist-sized nugget of meat that can be braised in red wine and stock until it’s ready to be balanced on a heap of mashed potato and covered in a rich sauce. The slightest prod with the tines of a fork should have it collapsing into tender meaty strands.
It also makes a staggeringly good and achingly rich ragu. Done this way, two cheeks should be enough for four people.
Trim any excess fat or sinew from the meat, cut into chunks, season with salt and pepper and brown in hot fat in a casserole. Deglaze the pan with white wine vinegar then sweat down some finely diced carrot, celery and onion in olive oil.
Return the meat to the pan with the vegetables, add a large glass of red wine and a carton of passata and cover with a cartouche. Braise the whole lot in a very low oven for six hours by which point the volume of liquid will have halved and the meat should be falling into the sauce.
Serve stirred into pasta and be ready to pledge not to use minced beef again.
Comments
Foodycat
Oh nice! I've been working on an oxtail ragu, but I think this looks superior! I must try to get some.
Ben / letsstartsimple.com
Thank you for reminding me of asking my butcher for beef cheek. I totally forgot I wanted to try do something with this cut of beef.
The recipe looks amazing by the way, thanks a lot for sharing!
Cheers,
Ben
saltychickenfiend
I have two complaints.
1. I'm so hungry, and this looks delicious. Surely this violates an aspect of the Geneva Convention?
2. You've ruined ragu for me forever – as now whenever I make a meat sauce for pasta, I'm going to be thinking "I bet this would taste better if I used beef cheeks", and there ain't no way I'm going to be able to get my hands on some. Devastated.
Awesomely delicious looking work, as ever!
Lizzie
I really must experiment with cheeks (both beef and pig) soon; I've heard so much about them. Your photos are mouth-watering.
Paunchos
Awesome stuff. A great use of brilliant ox cheeks. I can actually taste this right now. And can't wait to get my hands on some ox cheeks again.
cook it, eat it, enjoy it...
I love the sound of this, will definitely give it a try…
Kate
I had ox cheek ragu at a restaurant, and ever since, we’ve wante to make it. I had a word with my buthcer, and he sourced them for me no problem. In answer to Marv’s question, they were about £15 for 6 cheeks… so going by 2 cheeks for 4 people, that’s 12 meals worth – almost cheaper than a pork chop! 
I can’t wait…. and neither can my friends..
Neil
Waitrose now stock more interesting bits of cow, they have Aberdeen Angus ox cheeks for just shy of five pounds a kilo, that’s roughly three good sized cheeks, easily enough to delight eight hungry people with your stunning ragu, they would never ever guess how cheap it works out per head. Make lots, it only gets better with time as the flavours meld and deepen.
Alex Rushmer
Hot tip – I bought some from there a couple of weeks ago and they were absolutely stunning.
Francis Binney
None of the butchers seem to stock ox cheeks in Jersey and the only way i could get them was to order 10kg! I got a few of the guys at work to agree to take a pot each and had a serious cooking marathon. The only thing i did differently was to roast some vine tomatoes, sieve them and add them to the cooking toward the end to give it a bit of a lift.
Really delicious – thanks for the recipe.
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About Alex
I'm Alex Rushmer: writer, chef and Masterchef 2010 finalist. Welcome to my little corner of the Web. Why not get a cup of tea, snuggle down and make yourself at home?
Kavey
I've been trying to get some beef cheeks recently for a recipe I've been wanting to make for a few months. No local butchers (and the nearest two not very good) means I'm limited either to online options or traipsing into central London with an ice-box! Online = minimum order. So I'm waiting till there's more freezer space… sigh!
This one has now joined the book mark!