5 Reasons Why You Should Be Smoking Beef Cheeks (2024)

FAQs

5 Reasons Why You Should Be Smoking Beef Cheeks? ›

Beef cheeks are easily one of my favourite cuts to smoke – when treated right they are delicious, sticky, gooey, gelatinous nuggets of beef.

Beef cheeks are easily one of my favourite cuts to smoke – when treated right they are delicious, sticky, gooey, gelatinous nuggets of beef.

Beef cheeks frequently feature on restaurant menus and are prized for their rich and full flavour and meltingly tender texture but they're not a cut that home cooks often use. If you would like to add something new to your cooking repertoire then they are definitely worth trying.

Here's all you need to know to perfectly smoke beef cheeks:

Place the well-seasoned cheeks in a smoker at 275f, and cook for approximately 5 hours until you reach an internal temperature of 210f. At this temperature, they can be either pulled or sliced.

The characteristics of beef cheek meat resemble abdominal muscle meat [3] and have a moderate water holding capacity [4] with an average composition of 75.75% moisture, 22.25% protein, 0.31% fat, and carbohydrates and ash < 1% [5].

Firstly, beef cheeks are a natural chew, meaning they are safe and healthy for dogs to eat. They are also highly digestible, making them less likely to cause gastrointestinal issues than rawhide chews.

The smoking process allows meat to absorb flavor slowly without drying it out. And because of the low temperatures and slow cooking times, it also is a better way to cook your meat.

Are beef cheeks safe? ›

Beef cheek rolls are digestible, and furthermore, they are an excellent alternative to dangerous rawhide chews. Beef cheeks are much safer than rawhide and offer many more health benefits. Rawhide is a type of dog chew made from a cow's skin. Dogs often use it to relieve boredom and help with oral hygiene.

Can you overcook beef cheeks? Because beef cheeks are a tough secondary cut with a lot of muscle, they are perfectly suited to slow-cooking, and it would be very hard to overcook them!

While beef cheeks are less popular today than they were in the past, they're one of the best cheap cuts of meat for slow cooking. They feature an ultra-beefy flavor, and cooking it in liquid brings it out fully. Another underappreciated cheap cut of meat is the bavette.

Beef cheeks absorb the flavours of the liquid they are cooked in, resulting in a flavoursome meat with a texture that melts in your mouth like butter.

Since smoking is such a slow cooking method, it's ideal for tougher cuts of beef with lots of fat and connective tissue in the form of collagen, like beef cheek meat. The fat keeps the meat from drying out during the long smoking process while the collagen melts into tender gelatin.

Beef cheeks are a great lightweight alternative to traditional cuts. Beef cheeks are lower in calories and fat and higher in protein than most popular steaks. Plus, they have more immune-supporting vitamins (vitamin C and B) and 200 percent more iron than traditional cuts.

Consequently, it's a tough and fibrous muscle packed with tightly knotted strands of protein, intramuscular fat, remarkably resistant sinew and dogged collagen – which should all be music to the ears of the seasoned cooks among you, as you will know that if treated with a low, slow, gentle touch, those things can be ...

Beef Cheeks are the cheek muscle of cows and they are a very tough cut of meat that needs to be cooked long and slow to make it tender. It absorbs the flavours of braising liquid well and when you cut into it, it is stringy, almost like pulled pork.

Beef cheeks have a rich, beefy flavor and—when properly smoked—a tender texture, similar to short rib. Learn how to make flavorful smoked beef cheeks at home.

Also known as barbacoa meat, beef cheek meat is great in tacos, quesadillas, burritos and other delicious dishes. What is beef cheek meat? Beef cheeks come from the face of the cow, next to the jaw muscle. Our cheek meat produces a wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth bite packed with traditional flavor.