Ox cheeks are cooked slowly in red wine until meltingly soft and buttery in this rich winter stew. The Gluten-free sauce is naturally thickened by collagen.
Ox cheek is the cut of meat taken from the cow’s cheeks. Cows eat a diet based on grass and other coarse vegetation that is not easily digestible. In order to extract nutrients from this unpromising plant matter, cows spend up to eight hours a day constantly regurgitating and rechewing their food until it is digestible. All that jaw action means that the cheek muscles are very lean, and full of tough, connective tissue. Cheeks need to be cooked gently using indirect heat in order to break down the collagen. Low and slow cooking in a braising liquid like stock or wine breaks down collagen and converts it into silky smooth gelatine. This gives the meat a rich, buttery flavour, and thickens the cooking liquid. When cool, the enriched stock will set like jelly. The long cooking time – and, perhaps, a modern aversion to eating face meat – means that ox cheeks are not a popular cut, and can be picked up for a very reasonable price.
You can cook and serve ox cheeks whole if you prefer, but I find this makes dishing up tricky – ox cheeks come in irregular sizes, so it can be difficult to divide into equal portions. Instead, I suggest quartering each cheek before cooking, or using two forks to pull apart and shred the cheeks after cooking.
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Quick Tips
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| Braised Ox Cheek Stew | |
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Paleo
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Gluten-free
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Polenta: Allow 50g per person. Cook 1 part polenta (50g) to 5 parts water (250ml) – or 1 part almond milk and 4 parts water for a creamier version. Bring the water to the boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer and pour in the polenta in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Add seasoning, and keep stirring for the first couple of minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. Stir frequently until the polenta is cooked to the consistency of a thick porridge and starts to come away from the sides of the pan – about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir constantly for the final 10 minutes or so, to stop the polenta from sticking to the bottom of the pan. If you like, enrich by stirring in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil before serving. |
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Hearty Stews
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Slow cooked .5kg of cheek for nearly 3 hours after browning. Beautiful butteriness and succulent taste. Great undiscovered cut. Should I have done it for longer?
Glad you enjoyed the cheeks, and you’re right that they are very under-utilised! Slow-cooking meat is not a precise science in terms of timings; it’s not like baking a cake where you have to slavishly follow very set instructions. The meat is done when it’s done – that is, when it’s tender and falls apart. In my experience, for ox cheeks, this is after around 4 hours on the stovetop (3 hours cooked with a lid on, and the final hour uncovered to allow the liquid to evaporate to thicken the sauce). But it will vary from cook-to-cook, according to the particular cut and the size of the pieces, and according to the cooking equipementused and heat applied. So really it’s just a case of using your judgement; if the meat fell apart under the fork and was buttery, then you cooked it perfectly. If it was a bit chewy, then you probably need to cook it for a bit longer next time.