How to cook a cow's cheek and make a pate

A shop in a lane off the main pedestrian street in Dumfries, specialising in game and fish, also sells cheeks. No doubt they are also available from good local butchers, such as those in the food town of Castle Douglas.

This is an unusual dish these days but the Victorians were very fond of it. The cookery writer in Cassell's Family Magazine explained to readers in 1891 how to prepare cheek. She quoted a “Mrs Blakemore” who was always on hand to give advice to “Mrs Tomlin,” who had only been married for six months.

“Now about the cheek,” Mrs Blakemore went on, “That wants several hours' soaking in salt and water to remove the blood; then, by adding plenty of weak stock for gravy, and a good supply of vegetables and herbs, you may get a tureen of soup, and plenty of meat for dinner, with, as I said, some left over for potting.

She then went on to explain how to pot the meat, today we would call this a pate. “I always cut up the meat into inch squares, and season it well with salt and pepper, powdered mixed herbs, and allspice, and add an equal amount of something of a gelatinous nature, such as a cow's or calf's foot, or some ears and feet from the humble porker – all thoroughly boiled, of course; you must pack it closely into your mould, with a very little of the stock from the feet, then turn it out the next day. I forgot to say that it is much better to cut up the meat when warm.”