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Anyone done a cows head/barbacoa/cabeza de vaca?


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If so, how did you do it? Not looking to do super traditional (ie - digging a pit and covering it, etc) but wondering if anyone has made a whole cows head either in a smoker or oven?

 

Thinking about trying one this weekend, sourcing from Fiesta. If anyone is local houston and has any better place(s) I should buy from instead, id love any recs. Will eventually post pics if I can get one done this weekend

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A few weeks ago I went to the Mexican grocery and bought up all their cheek meat. It wasn't a trimmed cheek but it was a bunch of hard fat and bullshit along with some chunks of glorious cheek meat.

Not exactly what I was looking for but I rolled with it.

Trimmed off all the hard fat and left any of the good stuff. Seasoned liberally with salt and pepper like you would a brisket

Since it was in chunks and I knew they would cook down and shrink, I placed in a roasting pan and into the WSM so I didn't lose anything through the grates.  After 3 or so hours I added braising liquid of beef stock and a Negra Modelo. Smoked another 3-4 hours until all the chunks got to probe tender.

Took it off the smoker, then shredded it up, separating any big pieces of fat that didn't render. Onto fresh corn tortillas with chopped white onion, and chopped cilantro. Avocado slices on the side.

Was fuckin delicious. I probably threw down 5 or 6 tacos before I just rolled over onto the couch and went to sleep.

Edited by TornACL
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I've done several of them the traditional way.  If I was going to do it in an oven, I'd try to do it much the same way,  just with a different heat source.

I always liberally salt and pepper inside and out. Stuff the head (including under the tongue) with crushed garlic pods and onion and celery chunks then wrap the whole thing tight in heavy foil so you get all the internal steaming and cooking.  Place on some sort of a big sheet pan to catch any drips that might find their way out the foil. 

Good luck (but it's still way more manly to do it the traditional way!)

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5 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

We are lazy now and just put the whole head in a roasting pan like a turkey. A good salsa will cover your seasoning flaws

yea pretty much this. put in a roasting pan season with salt then wrap in foil with dark beer, beef stock, serrano, garlic, onion, fresh chopped tomato, toasted coriander seed and cinnamon stick. roast at 275 for 5/6 hours or so and baste a couple times.  some people turn the oven up at the end and take the foil off.  when finished let rest for around 30 minutes and start pulling meat. don't forget the eyes. at this point you can crisp up the meat in a cast iron pan on high heat if you want.

you can do all the above on a smoker. may take another hour of so of cook time depending on fire. mostly i see used is mesquite but oak or hickory would be good. 

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7 hours ago, TornACL said:

A few weeks ago I went to the Mexican grocery and bought up all their cheek meat. It wasn't a trimmed cheek but it was a bunch of hard fat and bullshit along with some chunks of glorious cheek meat.

Not exactly what I was looking for but I rolled with it.

Trimmed off all the hard fat and left any of the good stuff. 

I used to do cachete pretty regularly.  But then I got tired of dealing with all of this really hard fat.  Plus, the daughter went off to college and wife won't eat it.

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It's really all about steaming -- remember, traditional cooking had it wrapped in leaves, so it really wasn't exposed to smoke that much.  You can do a pretty good facsimile in your oven, using foil for wrapping.  And, yeah, lots of HEBs sell just the cheek meat -- foil pack with salt, pepper, and maybe some other random seasonings, and roast it for a few hours.  Higher temp than a smoker (need to render fat), but not too high.

 

The Homesick Texan gal did it in a smoker, but she wrapped it in banana leaves as is traditional (and covered it in foil pans) so I suspect it wasn't very smokey.

https://www.homesicktexan.com/2009/07/cow-head-barbacoa.html

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It's really all about steaming -- remember, traditional cooking had it wrapped in leaves, so it really wasn't exposed to smoke that much.  You can do a pretty good facsimile in your oven, using foil for wrapping.  And, yeah, lots of HEBs sell just the cheek meat -- foil pack with salt, pepper, and maybe some other random seasonings, and roast it for a few hours.  Higher temp than a smoker (need to render fat), but not too high.
 
The Homesick Texan gal did it in a smoker, but she wrapped it in banana leaves as is traditional (and covered it in foil pans) so I suspect it wasn't very smokey.
https://www.homesicktexan.com/2009/07/cow-head-barbacoa.html


Maybe smoke unwrapped for 20-30 minutes then wrap to finish cooking.
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f0e5ae58e7f6100e5d726023ae6ec2fe.jpg

The aftermath. Pic makes it look terrible, but the meat was absolutely incredible. Only problem was that the yield was only about 3 pounds of meat instead of the 6 pounds i had originally guessed. Not terrible, but not great for a 20 pound head and 18 hrs of cooking. Will try straight cheeks on the smoker next time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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2 hours ago, GreenspointTexas said:


The aftermath. Pic makes it look terrible, but the meat was absolutely incredible. Only problem was that the yield was only about 3 pounds of meat instead of the 6 pounds i had originally guessed. Not terrible, but not great for a 20 pound head and 18 hrs of cooking. Will try straight cheeks on the smoker next time
 

Looks remarkably similar to the end of my post.

http://www.shaggytexas.com/board/showthread.php/57241-Butterfinger-BarbacoaÂ

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On 7/25/2018 at 1:22 PM, po elvis said:

my mexican gf just takes a pack of cheek meat and puts it in the crock pot. salt and pepper. i think water.

Yup, had a chick I know fix it that way as well... I also made a turkey leg soup, but I'll put that on another thread...

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f0e5ae58e7f6100e5d726023ae6ec2fe.jpg

The aftermath. Pic makes it look terrible, but the meat was absolutely incredible. Only problem was that the yield was only about 3 pounds of meat instead of the 6 pounds i had originally guessed. Not terrible, but not great for a 20 pound head and 18 hrs of cooking. Will try straight cheeks on the smoker next time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Looks normal to me. Good job.
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I just do trimmed cheek meat. Salt and pepper liberally, double wrap in foil, then put the foil pack in the crock pot overnight with no liquid.  

I’ve done this. Added onions, garlic, peppers to the pack. It was delicious.

Not sure how you make the whole head look good. Taste is what matters and I bet that shits delicious.
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Just seeing this thread and find it relevant 776dff51a10104773c79afafbf5457cd.jpgto my interests. I started messing around with beef cheek a week or so back. Trimmed out all the silverskin, seasoned it with adobo, put it on the smoker until it probed pretty tender, then put it in a foil pan, covered about halfway with beef stock and some minced garlic, foiled it, and put it back in the smoker until it was so tender it easily shredded. Ay walla, beef cheek street tacos. Doing these again tomorrow for taco tuesday.

 

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On 7/25/2018 at 2:40 PM, TornACL said:

Onto fresh corn tortillas with chopped white onion, and chopped cilantro. Avocado slices on the side.

Was fuckin delicious. I probably threw down 5 or 6 tacos before I just rolled over onto the couch and went to sleep. 

my-nigga-gif.gif

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  • 2 months later...

Got this off the Mexican BGE YouTube channel.

Barbacoa en Adobo

5 lbs beef cheeks
banana leaves

Adobo:

Soften peppers and blend everything together.

4 guajillo peppers
2 pasilla peppers
2 ancho peppers
1/2 white onion
1 tsp salt
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp clove
4 bay leaves
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 1/2 Tbs salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup beef broth

A bit of color on the grill, then smoked for an hour at 300. I rubbed them with Bolner’s fajita seasoning.

7e9bd5da6aa768f63336c39939a2f85b.jpg

Wrapped in banana leaves and adobo.

86f49d1cfdedccb7cb8d67158fc6642e.jpg

Back in the smoker for a few hours.

0e9f904825ce6563f1e9e625f0133a22.jpg

More to come.

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  • 9 months later...

Was about to start my own thread but found this one for the necro bump. 

I've been back in Texas almost 5 years, mostly hanging around San Antonio, and I am still trying to find the barbacoa of my youth.  Somewhere in San Antonio around 1980 or 81'
there was a run down gas station converted into a barbacoa stand. Only open on Sunday, a line around the corner, and piles of gelatinous hand-pulled meat on butcher paper that as far as I was
concerned had come straight from heaven. I've hit some of the 'top' barbacoa places in San Antonio and it seems everyone is just using cheek meat now.  In fact, I notice little to no difference between any of the places I've been to. At Martinez Bros. on Fredericksburg road they told me that whole head is just too expensive and that's why no one uses it. -Anybody- know a place in or around SA that still does? 

Edited by Marfa Low Crown
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31 minutes ago, Marfa Low Crown said:

Was about to start my own thread but found this one for the necro bump. 

I've been back in Texas almost 5 years, mostly hanging around San Antonio, and I am still trying to find the barbacoa of my youth.  Somewhere in San Antonio around 1980 or 81'
there was a run down gas station converted into a barbacoa stand. Only open on Sunday, a line around the corner, and piles of gelatinous hand-pulled meat on butcher paper that as far as I was
concerned had come straight from heaven. I've hit some of the 'top' barbacoa places in San Antonio and it seems everyone is just using cheek meat now.  In fact, I notice little to no difference between any of the places I've been to. At Martinez Bros. on Fredericksburg road they told me that whole head is just too expensive and that's why no one uses it. -Anybody- know a place in or around SA that still does? 

You.  Buy a head at Fiesta (you can special order them, usually).  Do it in your own oven.  If you can't, seal it up and do it in a large smoker/bbq pit, or dig your own pit and do it with foil and hot coals.

It's worth it.

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