Beef cut: where it is, price, recipes
Beef cheek
The muscle that chews all day long: unworkably tough raw, meltingly soft after four hours of braising. In France it went from a grandmother's Sunday dish to a bistro headliner in about a decade.
- Braised
- Stewed
$8/ lb
- In French
- Joue de bœuf
- Where it sits
- Head. Beef cheek melts after hours of braising: it is the hardest working muscle of the whole animal.
- Tenderness
- 1/5
- Flavor
- 5/5
- Marbling
- 2/5
- Price
- $8 / lb ·
- Actual size
- ~12 cm
Compared with its neighbors
Compared with Neck, Beef cheek is more flavorful (5/5 vs 4/5), leaner (2/5 vs 3/5) and costs $2 a pound more.
| Cut | Tenderness | Flavor | Marbling | Price | How to cook it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beef cheek | 1/5 | 5/5 | 2/5 | $8 / lb | Braised, Stewed |
| Neck | 1/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | $6 / lb | Stewed, Braised, Boiled |
