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Beef Wellington on the grill


cinderella

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I am thinking of making beef wellington for Christmas dinner this year. I've grilled prime rib for Christmas before and that's always been very easy but I wanted to try to change things up this year. I've made beef wellington many times in the past in the oven but, due to an ever growing guest list, I need the oven for other things and would like to try to cook the beef wellington on the grill. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I did a search on google and saw only an article or two about grilling a beef wellington but details were vague. I know you cook it over indirect heat but after that I'm at a loss. The few articles I saw were in slight contradiction of one another so I was hoping someone here might have some wisdom they could share. Do you cook it directly on the grate or on a board/pan? Logically I'd think you need a pan otherwise the puff pastry would "leak" through to the grates. Do you add charcoals to only one side of the grill or to both sides? Do you need to cover it with foil part way through the cooking?

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I've made and cooked a number of Wellington's over the years and I would not attempt this on a grill.

First would be the added taste even if one used hardwood lump charcoal and not briquettes.

Second is the control of the puff which you could not let rest on grill slats as it will mold and puff and destroy itself on removal so a pan is a necessity.

A properly cooked Wellington using s whole tenderloin should rest for at least 30 minutes so if you can cook whatever else in that time frame, that's what I would do.-Dick

Edited by budrichard (log)
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I would not even attempt this except on a very large (so as to have the heat properly indirect), gas (so as to minimize the smoke flavors) grill, something like a 6-burner Weber Summit or similar, preferably with a double-layer lid that retains heat well. I'd use a pan set on the grates -- I'd essentially be trying to recreate an oven. I've done this (not with a Wellington, but with roasts), and it works, but even with the best grills it's kind of a fussy process -- keeping the temperature steady is dependent on things like ambient air temp and wind direction that one never considers when cooking indoors.

John Rosevear

"Brown food tastes better." - Chris Schlesinger

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Don't give up too easily! I think it could work if you do a small indirect fire and bake the wellington on a pizza stone in the center of the grill. The trick will be keeping the temp in the right zone. You can also play with the flavors a bit to make it work better with the grill flavors. Maybe serve it with barbecue sauce instead of gravy?

Dan

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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