I read some of the negative reviews and considered that they may not be familiar with this cut of meat, so decided to try it. I lived in Texas 15 years, though, and have prepared barbacoa before. The quality of this cheek meat is non-existent, and it costs too much to be this bad. We got about 2 pounds of marginally edible meat out of the 7-pound package we bought.

I have gotten these before and the quality of the meat was fine and tasted/smelled great, but this time I opened the package and they had a weird smell. Not a rancid smell, but like a definite cow smell. I tried to cook it out of the meat, but it didn’t help. That weird smell was still there. I read it might be due to the cryovac? Anyway, kind of a waste this time around but I will try again.

I expected a fair amount of waste, but at least 50+% of it was fat and gristle. Once I cooked the meat that was left, I'd say I ended up with 30% of what I started with. It was delicious but too expensive for what I got and too much work cutting all that tough fat and gristle off.

This is my second time trying this product. There won't be a third. I weighed it out this time; 7.25lbs total product, 4.05lbs waste. That works out to almost $9/lb for usable meat. I might as well buy chuck and save some money and not spend the better part of an hour trying to trim out the unusable bits that ended up as a pot of broth.

So yeah its greasy... as barbacoa is supposed to be be.... simply strained the excess grease off with strainer. With the 6lbs we got made 14 very stuffed tacos with this package. Slow cooked it in my crock pot with a yellow onion and clove of garlic. It was amazing!!! Going to cook this with my mom again soon... thats how good it is... worthy of my Momma. Also as far as fat that didnt melt off there was very very little.

If you are unfamiliar with cheeks, whether beef or pork, you may not like this but it looks like there is lots of waste. In fact, you cook the "connective tissue" as well as the meat, trimming off the fat only. I had very little waste because I have eaten cheeks my whole life and know what to cook and what to pitch. The meat is very rich and full of flavor. I put it in a dutch oven, browned it thoroughly, added broth (I had chicken), 2c dry red wine, onions, potatoes, carrots, thyme, bay leaves and put it in the oven for 6-8 hours on 275F. They were so tender, I cut them with a spoon. Immediately after cooking, I emailed all my family to check their local Sam's Club for them. Next time I will buy a case.

I should have listened to reviews, but though, ehhh it’s just people complaining. This package was over 50% fat! From the outside it looked fine, but once I opened it and started trimming, I was extremely disappointed. I am usually really happy with the meat from Sam’s Club, but this one will unfortunately start getting purchased somewhere else..

I was very excited to find beef cheek meat at such a reasonable price locally. Unfortunately, it is pretty much fat. No trimming at all. So you think you're getting a bunch of cheek meat and then you realize that a good 60 to 70% of it is fat. Avoid.

Purchased 3 packages at approx $33 each package. Majority (more than 2/3 of each package) was fat. Amount of actual meat was less than the size of one of the packages after all of the fat pieces were removed. This is the second instance of this occuring. About 2 years ago, it was the other way around which is why I had hoped the last time it was an anomaly, but I was wrong as it appears (based on other recent reviews) it's now the norm. Almost seems like the company that packages it (Sam's club doesn't cut and package it) tries to scam the Sam's club custormer on purpose.

Fed the whole family for under $40. You can't find that anywhere anymore.