Buying and lighting calculator · Beef
How much beef cheeks do I buy and when do I light?
A beef cheek is the animal's cheek muscle: a small, hard-worked cut full of collagen that only softens with long, moist cooking. Butchers sell it in pieces of roughly 250 to 500 g, with a film of silverskin and some hard fat that you should ask them to trim. It loses about a third of its weight to water and fat in the braise, so we count 310 g raw per person to reach about 200 g on the plate, which is one or two pieces. Time does not scale with the kilos: however many you cook, each cheek needs around three hours at 150 °C, covered in a cocotte with wine and stock. In the kamado it behaves like an oven, deflector in and no heavy smoke.
How to ask for it
For 4 people: Ask for beef cheeks already trimmed of hard fat and silverskin, 1.25 kg in total and all about the same size so they finish together.
Beef cheeks lose about a third in the braise: 310 g raw leaves roughly 200 g on the plate per person. fork-tender; a knife tip slides in with no resistance.
How we calculate it
We start from a reasonable cooked portion (about 200 g of meat on the plate, 170 g of cleaned fish) and convert it to raw weight using each cut's bone and trim loss. "Hungry" adds 25 %. We round up to what is actually sold: quarter kilos, whole pieces, units.
To the cook time (per kilo or per piece, at each method's temperature) we add the kamado's lighting and stabilising (20-45 min depending on the method, as on the recipe pages), the rest, and a margin for long cooks, which vary from one piece to the next. Times are approximate: your kamado, the wind and the charcoal decide; on big cuts, trust the probe.
Frequently asked questions
How many beef cheeks per person?
Plan on about 310 g of trimmed cheek per person, which is usually one or two pieces depending on size. After the braise you are left with roughly 200 g on the plate. Many recipes start from 200 to 250 g raw per serving; we go a little higher because cheeks shrink a lot and people always want seconds with the sauce.
How long do beef cheeks take in the oven or kamado?
About three hours at 150 °C, covered and in their liquid. The recipes we checked run from two and a half to three and a half hours, depending on the size of the piece. They are ready when they come apart with a fork; if they still push back, give them another half hour.
Do beef cheeks need trimming before braising?
Yes: they carry a silvery membrane and hard fat that do not render and leave the sauce gummy. The easiest route is to ask the butcher for them already trimmed; if you buy them whole, remember trimming takes a share of the weight, so buy a little more than the 310 g per person.
Other Beef cuts
- Beef brisket
- Bone-in ribeye and tomahawk
- Beef tenderloin
- Picanha (rump cap)
- Beef short ribs
- Ground beef (burgers)
Approximate figures. Sources and the portion rule are in "How we calculate it".