Beef cheek

Beef cheeks are a cut of beef historically selected to use as stew meat or ground beef/hamburger.^[1] According to a report on the North American meatpacking industry in the 1910s, beef cheeks are the:

...heavy muscles of the jaw and head. Their average weight is about 3.86 pounds (1.75 kg) per head. They also yield a small amount of tallow trimmings which are utilized in the oleo, and the parotid glands or No. 2 cheeks which are removed sometimes and used for pharmaceutical purposes. The No. 2 cheeks, however, are used more often in sausage and canned meats.^[2]

Beef cheeks were historically used in bologna and mettwurst sausage.^[3] The cheeks of a cow (which used those muscles to chew cud) are typically "sinewy" and should be trimmed down by a butcher before used by cooks.^[4] A comparatively affordable cut of meat, beef cheeks typically need to be slow-cooked or braised.^[4] Beef cheeks "tend to fall apart" which limits plate presentation options for chefs.^[5]