Name: Joue de Boeuf
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 1.2 kg beef cheeks, trimmed; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp rapeseed oil; 2 carrots, chopped; 1 onion, chopped; 2 celery sticks, chopped; 3 garlic cloves; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 500 ml red wine; 400 ml beef stock; 6 g thyme sprigs; 2 bay leaves

Joue de Boeuf

Beef cheeks braised for 3 hours in red wine, carrots and thyme until they can be cut with a spoon, with the sauce reduced to a glaze.

3 hr 20 min total Serves 4 servings Medium

The Case for Joue de Boeuf

The first cold week of the year is the time for beef cheeks: a cheap, hard-working muscle that turns meltingly soft when it is cooked low and slow. A cheek is mostly connective tissue, and the long braise melts it into a rich gelatine that thickens the sauce on its own.

Brown the cheeks well, a few at a time, until they have a dark crust, because that colour flavours the whole pot. Then pour over red wine, stock and the vegetables, cover, and put the pot in a low oven. Do not let the liquid boil: it should barely tremble, around 150°C / 300°F in the oven. The meat is ready when a spoon pushes through it with no resistance.

Lift the cheeks out, strain the sauce and boil it down until it coats a spoon, then taste. A spoonful of redcurrant jelly or a little vinegar at the end balances the richness. Serve with mashed potato or buttery noodles. The dish is better made a day ahead, when the flavour has settled and the fat can be lifted off the surface.

What Goes With It

Mashed potatoes
Buttered noodles
Green beans
Red wine

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Boulangere Potatoes, Brioche Buns, Duchess Potatoes.

Making Joue de Boeuf, Step by Step

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Heat the oven to 150°C / 300°F. Season the cheeks with the salt. Brown them in the oil in a casserole in two batches, 4 minutes a side. Lift out.
Cook the carrots, onion and celery in the same pot for 8 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato purée for 1 minute.
Pour in the wine, boil for 3 minutes, then add the stock, thyme and bay leaves.
Return the cheeks, cover and cook in the oven for 3 hours, until a spoon goes through the meat.
Lift out the cheeks. Strain the sauce into a pan and boil for 12 minutes until it coats a spoon.
Return the cheeks to the sauce and warm through for 3 minutes.

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A Few Notes

Brown the cheeks well for a dark, flavourful sauce.

Keep the oven low so the liquid barely moves.

Make it a day ahead and lift the fat off the cold sauce.

Swaps and Variations

An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Storing and Reheating

Keeps for 4 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.

What's in a Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.

Dairy-Free No Added Sugar

Joue de Boeuf

What Goes With It

Making Joue de Boeuf, Step by Step

A Few Notes

Swaps and Variations

Storing and Reheating

What's in a Serving

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

What Goes With It

Making Joue de Boeuf, Step by Step

A Few Notes

Swaps and Variations

Storing and Reheating

What's in a Serving

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

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