Ruined my Beef Wellington

[nextguy]

Hi all,

I made a Beef Wellington yesterday using a recipe I've used before. I seared a beef tenderloin very quickly in grapeseed oil and then let it rest for 30 minutes. I then cooked it sous vide at 128 degrees for 2 hours with some salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic. I removed the meat from the water bath and let it sit for just a few minutes while I rolled out the puff pastry. I then wrapped the fillet in Serano ham, spread some mushroom duxelle on the puff pastry, placed the meat on top of it, and then rolled the puff pastry up with a few slits on top to let out steam. I brushed the pastry with egg wash and then cooked it on a baking sheet for around 15 minutes at 425 until the dough was golden brown. I must have done something wrong because the fillet bled out like crazy. There must have been at least 3 or four tablespoons or juice that WASN'T absorbed by the pastry dough underneath the beef. Lifting it out of the pan obviously was a challenge and it wasn't very pretty.

As I said, I've made this exact recipe before and didn't have this issue. Should I have baked the Wellington at a lower temperature? The meat was already cooked so the baking was only to brown the dough.

TIA!

Edited January 18, 2010 by nextguy (log)

[nextguy]

It still tasted great by the way... except for the soggy dough underneath.

[Prawncrackers]

Seems to me that if you did everything exactly the same then it must be your piece of meat. Maybe try a more aged fillet next time.

[DTBarton]

I agree that the cut of meat must have been the difference. I had another question.

I make beef Wellington from time to time and have had good luck with it. Is the effort to do the sous vide step really worth it? I just sear the meat, let it cool, then spread on some pate and wrap it up and bake it.

[nextguy]

I agree that the cut of meat must have been the difference. I had another question.

I make beef Wellington from time to time and have had good luck with it. Is the effort to do the sous vide step really worth it? I just sear the meat, let it cool, then spread on some pate and wrap it up and bake it.

Before I answer that you should know that I am a huge fan of SVing food and would SV toast if it worked

I think it makes sense in this application though since it ensures perfectly even cooking without the risk of burning the pastry. Since the meat went into the dough already cooked, I never had to worry about the state of the meat or pull out a thermometer.

So does meat of lesser quality or aging retain its juice less?

[IndyRob]

I am a huge fan of SVing food and would SV toast if it worked

Dang, now I have a new challenge.

I don't have an answer, but in the interest of accuracy, I note that you switched between talking about searing a "tenderloin", and wrapping a "fillet" in short order. I assume there was a slicing step in there somewhere? My internal eyebrow raises around the phrase "sitting for just a few minutes." With a traditionally roasted piece of meat, I'd put my thumb squarely on that. With SV, it might still be an issue.

[David A. Goldfarb]

So does meat of lesser quality or aging retain its juice less?

It's not a matter of longer aged beef retaining the juice, so much as more of the juice being water in meat that hasn't been aged as long. If you're buying a whole fillet in cryovac, you can drain it for about three days in the fridge on paper towels on a platter, covered loosely in plastic, changing the paper towels each day, and it will be substantially improved. The meat will be denser, more flavorful, and will brown better.

[Nayan Gowda]

An old cheffy trick is to lay the beef on a crepe when enclosing it in the pastry. This absorbs the moisture.

[jk1002]

>>With a traditionally roasted piece of meat, I'd put my thumb squarely on that. With SV, it might still be an issue. <<

I believe that with SV that is still an issue, I did pork tenderloin a few times and the first time I skipped resting and it lost a lot of juice (not that it mattered, it was still ultra juicy). Note that I did not pan sear but shuffled it under a broiler for a minute or two to crisp up a pecan maple syrup mustard topping.

JK

[KarenDW]

So does meat of lesser quality or aging retain its juice less?

It's not a matter of longer aged beef retaining the juice, so much as more of the juice being water in meat that hasn't been aged as long. If you're buying a whole fillet in cryovac, you can drain it for about three days in the fridge on paper towels on a platter, covered loosely in plastic, changing the paper towels each day, and it will be substantially improved. The meat will be denser, more flavorful, and will brown better.

Or, on a rack over a sheet pan. No paper towels needed