Pitmasters get cheeky, adding different beef cuts to their menus
Ten years ago the choices on a barbecue menu were mostly limited to the Texas trinity: beef brisket, pork ribs and a kielbasastyle, beef-and-pork sausage. Turkey and chicken would add some variety. Then a confluence of events began to reshape those menus.
First, beef and pork producers wanted to sell more of their product. In the case of a cow, the brisket was only one small part of the animal. Marketers began a campaign to get pitmasters to add other cuts of beef to their menus. The pitmasters were receptive because the barbecue business was challenging, and they needed new products to distinguish themselves from competitors as well as other cuisines.
The best example of this trend is the beef rib. Only a few years ago the beef rib — or “dinosaur rib” as it is sometimes called, in reference to its considerable size and weight — was rarely seen on barbecuejoint menus. Today, almost all barbecue joints serve a beef rib, either daily or on specific days of the week.
Other cuts of beef that can be found on today’s menus include tri-tip, beef belly and oxtails. From the pig, pork belly is a cut that has become wildly popular in the past few years.
The latest addition to barbecue-joint menus is the beef cheek. This cut is exactly as it is named — a chunk of meat from the cheek of a cow, specifically the muscle that it uses to slowly, methodically “chew the cud” for the extent of its life. A trimmed beef cheek is deliciously fatty and exceedingly tender and showing up in tacos, sausages or just as a standalone dish, often in place of brisket.
Here’s a secret: Beef cheek is one of the oldest cuts of meat used in barbecue. What’s old is new again.
Indeed, the tradition and technique of “barbacoa” — the Mexican style of barbecue in which an entire cow’s head is cooked in a pit of hot coals — features the beef cheek or “cachete” as the most desirable cut.
In Houston, Gerardo’s Drive-In continues the tradition of barbacoa by steaming whole cow heads and stripping the meat off to produce a rich, silky barbecue-style dish. Visit the northside spot on a Sunday, order a couple of pounds of cachete and some tortillas, and make your own barbacoa tacos.
Farther north in Tomball, Scott and Greg Moore at Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue have incorporated beef cheeks into their barbacoa boudin (available Tuesdays and Thursdays) and barbacoa tacos (available Tuesdays).
One of the best uses of beef cheeks can be found at the LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue truck in Austin. Chef and pitmaster Evan LeRoy offers smoked beef cheeks as the centerpiece of his current menu, replacing the standard beef brisket. LeRoy’s beef cheeks are rich, meaty, tender and smoked and seasoned perfectly.
And that may not even be the best beef cheek dish on the menu. The “barbacado” is one the most unusual new-school barbecue dishes I’ve tasted recently. It has an avocado sliced in half and topped with shredded beef cheek and dressed with chopped onion, queso fresco, jalapeño salsa and cilantro. The silkiness of the beef cheek and the creaminess of the avocado produce a perfect combination of flavors and textures. I’ve seen brisket/barbacoa and avocado combined in dishes at other barbecue joints, but LeRoy’s is one of the best I’ve had.
So the next time you experience “brisket fatigue” and are looking for something new in the form of beef cuts to try, ask around at your favorite barbecue joints to find if any are serving beef cheek. It’s a worthy challenger to king brisket.