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Beef Wellington


chefgregory

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Greetings Fellow Foodies

I am so confused right now, I know that August Escoffier invented this dish, and I own Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery isbn:0471290165, and for the life of me can't seem to find this epitomise recipe in this book. I have searched under "fillet en croute" and went through the entire beef section to try to find it.

This whole search started as I was watching MasterChef and they had a recipe calling for a crepe to protect the pastry from going soggy. This does make perfect sense actually, I just had never heard of it before. I checked Julia Child and she doesn't include a crepe, nor does Larousse, nor Herrings reference. I did find online recipe that does include it, but as we all know what's online isn't always AUTHENTIC and classically correct. I went to my apprenticeship books (canadian) and they don't include it. (Actually I just thought of a couple more reference books I can check though - Eugene Pauli and Paul Bocuse.

I checked in my Joel Robuchon, Michel Roux and Alain Ducasse books and although their recipe all differ slightly, they don't include a crepe (I did learn that a lot of them use foi-gras and/or truffle-pate as an ingredient though) - but these are all modern renditions.

I hit the escoffier.com web site and tried a search the original Escoffier recipe but came up dry. I have lots of cook books that have lots of great recipes but alas none of them contain a crepe. I know I'm being a little persnickety with this, but really want to find the old, old classical recipe done by escoffier - I did find websites with descriptions about who it was really names after, but alas none of them contained the "original, classic" one.

I do realize that a lot of modern cooking, is only a variation of the classic Escoffier methods, but I am flabbergasted I can't find it in the one book it should be in - I feel really stupid that I can't find this, and slightly embarrased I have to ask this community with the 400+ books I own.

Thanks a lot!!!

Cheers

Gregory Bastow

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I don't think this is an Escoffier recipe. One Duke of Wellington was about a hundred years before Escoffier. Two filet de boeuf en croute is pretty hoary French classic - I would be surprised if it was a late C19 invention.

Crepe is indeed the traditional "classic" recipe. More specifically a layer of duxelles is spread on the crepe and it is then wrapped around the fillet (so it goes puff pastry - crepe - duxelles - beef). I would assume more modern chefs omit it because the crepe obviously makes things a bit heavier and doesn't contribute much to the flavour.

J

More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
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I don't think this is an Escoffier recipe.  One Duke of Wellington was about a hundred years before Escoffier.  Two filet de boeuf en croute is pretty hoary French classic - I would be surprised if it was a late C19 invention.

Crepe is indeed the traditional "classic" recipe. More specifically a layer of duxelles is spread on the crepe and it is then wrapped around the fillet (so it goes puff pastry - crepe - duxelles - beef). I would assume more modern chefs omit it because the crepe obviously makes things a bit heavier and doesn't contribute much to the flavour.

J

Since my initial post, I've gone back to Careme's time and have found that it may be "classic", and you are right - it is NOT an escoffier creation. I made a poor assumption about all french classic recipes coming from Escoffier. I've learned a lot though, and I thank the patience of members here.... I found my answer though.

Cheers

GB

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  More specifically a layer of duxelles is spread on the crepe and it is then wrapped around the fillet (so it goes puff pastry - crepe - duxelles - beef).

J

Isn't the duxelles really a layer of black truffle and foie?

Gordon Ramsey and/or Marcus Waring definitely uses the crepe (with chives in it). Check the "Cooks Book".

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