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OK, I'm a broken record on this. I'm encouraging folks to try beef cheeks if they haven't already. I get mine from Sam's Club, where they come in a cryovac package of 5 - 6 lbs.  I split the package in two and try to separate as much of the gristle, fat, and silverskin as I can before repackaging in foodsaver bags for later use. I usually end up with 2 - 3 lbs of cheeks (three or so cheeks per package). Freezing them trimmed makes it so much easier to use later.

Today I started with a package of three good-sized cheeks, a little over 2 ponds total. Into a foil pan and topped with about 3 Tbs of Oak Ridge Black Ops Brisket Rub sprinkled over, then in my AQ at 225F with 2.5 oz of pecan chunks (three smallish pieces). This is my (slight) adaptation of an old recipe here from AndyJ.

After 5 hours in the smoker, I took them out and covered the pan with foil (at this point they look dark brown and just a bit juicy), and into a 225F oven for another 5 hours (makes the house smell great). I start checking for "pullability" at around 4.5 hours in the oven. Today they were easily pullable at 5 hours. I pulled them and put back in the oven until serving. They were incredibly juicy and there was a good amount of great-tasting bark.

We had them on heated flour tortilllas with guacamole, hot fresh salsa, cilantro, lettuce, a bit of green chile sauce from our garden, and some Mexican crema. Ate them like burritos. The smoky beefiness of the cheeks is amazing. Far more flavorful than any brisket I've ever done. You should try them!

Last edited by jay1924
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I've since found that it's much easier to remove the nasty stuff after they are finished cooking while you're pulling them apart.  And as Jay says, you won't be disappointed.  After having the sticky sweet goodness that is beef check barbacoa, you'll probably never want to eat the stuff Chipotle tries to pass off as barbacoa.

Coincidentally, I went to Sam's Club today and bought a cryovac bag of beef cheeks, about 6.7 lbs at about $4 a lb. I saw andyJ's comment that he likes to trim them after cooking, but I want to avoid my smoked cheeks swimming in a lake of fat at the end - I'll continue to trim them before packaging and freezing. Actually it's knife work I like to do. I use a Henckels boning knife that I've had for almost 40 years, that I keep sharp as a razor, that does a great job on silver skin and tendons and fat (you have to watch out for your fingers though). I'll get two packages of around three pounds each for summer meals of barbacoa.

Edit: I unwrapped the cryovac package of cheeks and trimmed them to package and freeze. I was VERY disappointed that unlike the earlier packages of cheeks I've gotten from Sam's these cheeks were not even packer-trimmed. There was so much fat, gristle, and what looked like skin, that I spent over an hour trimming the cheeks, and wound up with about 4 lbs of moderately-trimmed cheeks from a 6.7 lb package. So that's over $10 per lb on cookable meat. I noticed the cryovac packaging at Sans was different than I had before, indicating maybe a different suppler. In any case, I can't recommend Sam's Club beef cheeks any longer. Bummer.

Last edited by jay1924

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