Pork cheeks are one of those cuts of meats gaining popularity with the growth of nose-to-tail butchery. We have some excellent sources locally at such butcher shops as Rosemont, The Farm Stand, Maine MEat and Bleecker and Flam who get in whole animals that are carved onsite.
You’ll find recipes for these novel cuts in the new crop of cookbooks being written mostly by innovative restaurant chefs who either slaughter the animals for use in their kitchens or rely on local farms and producers who offer these esoteric finds.
For a Saturday night dinner party at home last weekend I labored through a fairly complicated menu that revolved around my stash of pork cheeks based on recipes from John Currence in his book “Pickles, Pigs and Whisky.” He’s a James Beard award winner and has a group of restaurants in Oxford, Mississippi (see review).
Braised pork cheeks in bourbon, veal and ham stock reduction over Anson Mills grits
I say “stash” because they’re not in plentiful supply at the shops because a pig, after all, has only two cheeks. And unless the butcher is cutting up several animals in the same week you need to order in advance. For 6 people I needed 12 checks (about two pounds), which meant that the butcher needed to work on 6 carcasses.
