How do I cook ox cheek and beef short ribs?

These are the two cuts most likely to convert someone to buying cheap beef. Both were worked hard, both are full of connective tissue, and both give back more than a steak twice their price if you give them the hours they need.

What you'll need

• Ox cheeks or bone-in beef short ribs
• A heavy lidded casserole
• Stock and red wine, or stout
• A sharp knife for trimming silverskin

Step by step

1. Trim ox cheek before you cook it.A cheek arrives with a tough silver membrane on one face and sometimes a fat pad. The silverskin does not break down usefully and turns into a rubbery seam. Slide a thin sharp knife under one edge, angle the blade slightly upwards, and take it off in strips. Leave the fat — that renders and helps.
2. Leave short ribs alone but understand the format.Short ribs come as thick individual pieces with a bone plate underneath, or as a long 'Jacob's ladder' rack. Both work. There is a lot of fat between the layers; it renders during the cook and needs removing afterwards, which is why the make-ahead approach suits them.
3. Brown hard, in batches.Dry the meat, salt it, and brown every surface in a very hot heavy pan until it is genuinely dark. Cheek especially benefits — it is a dense, quite mild muscle and the crust supplies its character. Do not crowd the pan or you steam it.
4. Build a strong braising liquid.Soften onion, carrot and celery in the fat. Add tomato purée and cook it out. Deglaze with red wine or stout and reduce it by half — this removes the raw alcohol edge that otherwise sits in the finished sauce. Add beef stock, bay, thyme, and a few peppercorns.
5. Braise low, part-submerged, covered.Liquid two-thirds of the way up the meat. Lid on. 140–150°C. Ox cheeks: 3–4 hours. Short ribs: 3½–5 hours depending on thickness. Both are done when a fork twists the meat apart with no resistance at all.
6. Chill overnight if you can, especially short ribs.Cool, then refrigerate the meat in its liquid. The fat sets in a solid layer you can lift off in one piece, which is far easier and far more complete than skimming hot. Reheat gently in the oven at 140°C, covered, for about 45 minutes.
7. Reduce the sauce separately and glaze at the end.Strain the defatted liquid into a wide pan and reduce it until it is glossy and coats a spoon. Spoon it over the meat and put it back in a hot oven uncovered for ten minutes to glaze the surface. That final step is what makes short ribs look like restaurant food.

Tips

• Ox cheek is superb in a pie or a ragù because it shreds into short, tender strands rather than the long fibres you get from shin.
• One large short rib per person is generous; the bone and fat mean the edible yield is well under half the raw weight.
• Both cuts freeze extremely well cooked and sitting in their sauce.
• Ask the butcher for cheeks — they are often not on display but usually available, and they are one of the cheapest things in the shop.

Common mistakes

• Not trimming the silverskin off ox cheek — Unlike collagen, that membrane does not turn to gelatine. It contracts and leaves a chewy sheet running through an otherwise perfect piece of meat.
• Serving short ribs straight from the pot — The braising liquid at that point is largely rendered fat. Without a chill-and-lift or a very thorough skim, everything tastes greasy.
• Treating them like a stew and cutting them up first — Both are at their best cooked whole. Large pieces lose less moisture and the presentation is the point of buying them.

Questions people ask