Beef Cheek Tacos

Daniel Vaughn has written in Texas Monthly about a few places that serve barbacoa/cheek. Here are some with cooking tips that I saved for a future cheeks project.

Vera's is the old school place:

"Today, most commercial barbacoa is steamed or done in pressure cookers to comply with health codes. Vera’s time-honored method has been grandfathered in, and some suspect that local politicians simply couldn’t imagine life without their barbacoa tacos. The Vera family’s process calls for the heads to be tightly wrapped in foil and cooked for long hours in earthen pits over mesquite coals; their unpretentious place is the only restaurant in the state still doing it this way."

Mr. Vera suggested Vaughn try T-Ghost BBQ in Weslaco:

"Joshua doesn’t use the whole beef head like Vera’s. He seasons beef cheeks with salt and pepper and smokes them with mesquite wood for two to three hours. “I get a nice crust, then wrap them up in traditional banana leaves and foil and let them steam for about eight hours,” he said. The result is silky, tender shredded barbacoa with a nice dose of smoke flavor that survives the steaming portion of the cook. Their barbacoa tacos come topped with cilantro and onion, along with a cup of excellent salsa made with jalapeños and serranos roasted over mesquite"

LeRoy & Lewis Barbecue truck in South Austin is experimental and sometimes serves beef cheek sandwich with kimchi and beet barbecue sauce.

"This underutilized cut (for now, at least) has all the juiciness of fatty brisket, but more surface area for black pepper lovers. LeRoy smokes then confits them in beef fat. They’re incredibly tender, and perfect alone or on a sandwich paired with beet barbecue sauce and kimchi."

LINK

I tried these a while ago and they turned out great.