Beef Wellington

[sabg]

i am looking for the BEST beef wellington recipe. i have seen a few and they use mushrooom instead of goose liver. i am looking for goose liver. thanks

[MatthewB]

A recipe

[nightscotsman]

I made Beef Wellington from a recipe in Cook's Illustrated for Thanksgiving a few years ago. It included pate de foie gras as well as mushroom duxelles. It was a hell of a lot of work but turned out really good, especially the red wine sauce that was in the same article. Man, I wanted to take a bath in that sauce...

[tommy]

i thought the recipe traditionally calls for mushrooms *and* a liver product.

edit...although one definition i just read suggested it's an "or" operation.

Edited June 17, 2003 by tommy (log)

[Wimpy]

I just prepared a Beef Wellington last weekend and bunged it in the freezer for baking this coming saturday. Btw, it freezes darn well (I've done it a few times already).

I follow the Cook's Illustrated Recipe which is pretty well written. It calls for both duxelles (mushrooms) and pate. In my case, I didn't have any pate on hand so I used fresh duck foie pieces I had left over in the freezer, let it reach near room temp, put between two sheets of plastic wraps and bashed it into a longish, flatish sheet which I peeled and put on top of the filet (before rolling the duxelle over it). The idea is that the fat will melt into the duxelle and crust during the baking process.

Edited June 17, 2003 by Wimpy (log)

[fifi]

And the use of leftovers reaches a new pinnacle. Only on eGullet!

[Louisa Chu]

A Beef Wellington tip - layer a crepe between the puff pastry and the beef/duxelles/foie gras. This keeps the moisture contained and the puff pastry from getting soggy.

[thecuriousone]

I'd like to make a beef wellington using port tenerloin. Is this a simple substitutio or are ther adaptations I should be aware of? Thanks in advance.

[rich]

Absolutely. But since pork tenderloin has no fat at all, a few precautions must be taken. First, quickly sear the meat to give it a crust, but that's it. Don't place in the oven. And secondly, wrap a piece of muenster cheese around it to keep it moist. The cheese will melt away and leave no taste.

I've also made venison the same way and have used different chutneys in place of the fois gras and duxelle on occasion. Worked out fine with both meats.

Good luck and enjoy.

[Shalmanese]

Absolutely. But since pork tenderloin has no fat at all, a few precautions must be taken. First, quickly sear the meat to give it a crust, but that's it. Don't place in the oven. And secondly,  wrap a piece of muenster cheese around it to keep it moist. The cheese will melt away and leave no taste.

I've also made venison the same way and have used different chutneys in place of the fois gras and duxelle on occasion. Worked out fine with both meats.

Good luck and enjoy.

←

Well, beef tenderloin has no fat either so it's pretty much the same principle.

[kgaddis]

I don't think you can make Beef Wellington with Pork. You should try a Pork Wellington! Sorry, I had to.

[chef koo]

Absolutely. But since pork tenderloin has no fat at all, a few precautions must be taken. First, quickly sear the meat to give it a crust, but that's it. Don't place in the oven. And secondly,  wrap a piece of muenster cheese around it to keep it moist. The cheese will melt away and leave no taste.

I've also made venison the same way and have used different chutneys in place of the fois gras and duxelle on occasion. Worked out fine with both meats.

Good luck and enjoy.

←

personally i wouldn't sear it. puff pastry takes a long time to cook. if you read up on alot of recipes it'll tell you to use the biggest piece of beef tenderloin you can find to ensure that the pastry is cooked and the centre is still pink. not only that but pork tenderloin is alot smaller then beef to begin with. so you can so it but it's either have a nicely cooked pastry with over cooked meat, or under cooked party with pink meat. if you want to be unconventional you can try deep frying it. that way the pastry will cook quicker. or just roll out the pastry paper thin. but the mositure from the meat will make the pastry will go soggy

[Kent Wang]

I just helped my friend make a beef Wellington and honestly, it was only so-so. I love pate and I love steak but the two ingredients just did not incorporate well. Do you think a good idea would be to chop up the beef into bite-size pieces (1-inch cubes) and then mixing that with the pate? I'd hate to chop up a beef tenderloin so maybe this can be done with a cheaper cut of beef.

[Grub]

One of the staples in Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen was a Lamb Wellington. It used a duxelles, but no pâté. He also made a more traditional Beef Wellington on "The F Word," but again no pâté -- just duxelles. His restaurants serve Beef Wellington as well, but I don't know if they follow the same recipe.

I've never had a traditional Beef Wellington, but the combination of pâté and beef tenderloin (or any other meat) just doesn't sound too appetizing to me; too overwhelming. And you know -- spank me and call me Karl Marx -- like some over the top, bourgeois yuppie surf 'n turf extravaganza.

Whether you agree with Ramsay's approach on that count or not, there is a really cool part of his recipe that I've not seen elsewhere, that handles the same thing Louisa Chu addressed ("... layer a crepe between the puff pastry and the beef/duxelles/foie gras. This keeps the moisture contained and the puff pastry from getting soggy.")

Ramsay's recipe smears the tenderloin with mustard and the duxelles, but then wraps it in parma ham before chilling it, and finally wrapping it in the pastry. I can testify to that method's efficiency... I made a Pork Wellington, and instead of the duxelles, I used a prune mixture and wrapped it all in Prosciutto, and the pastry never got soggy.

Good luck with it -- please do report back on it! Here's Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington recipe from "The F Word."

[budrichard]

BW is incumbent upon three ingrediants.

1. The beef must be Prime and should be the head of a properly trimmed tenderloin for the biggest piece, at least 2 #'s. Searing is required to give an adequate crust and barrier to the Pate. If using the head of the tenderloin, there is no problem with cooking the puff and having the beef rare. It is when using the filet that the problem occurs becuase the filet is smaller in diameter.

2. The Pate must be adequately seasoned and of high quality. Foie alone is not sufficient. Mushrooms if used must be precooked to get rid of the liquid.

3. The puff must be of high quality using unsalted butter, preferably of you own making if you know how. Commercial puff simply will not do.

BTW, most pork tenerderloin is too small for this technique.

Technique.

1. Season you beef with fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt and sear over very high temp until a crust forms. Kill the heat in a cold water bath. Dry your beef.

2. Rub your beef with cognac and smear the pate over the beef.

3. Roll in the puff and construct your Wellington. -Chill well.

4. Cook in a pre heated 425F oven until your puff browns and the internal meat temp is 100F.

5. Rest for 30 minutes at least.

Dick

[kbjesq]

I just prepared a Beef Wellington last weekend and bunged it in the freezer for baking this coming saturday.  Btw, it freezes darn well (I've done it a few times already).

I follow the Cook's Illustrated Recipe which is pretty well written.  It calls for both duxelles (mushrooms) and pate.  In my case, I didn't have any pate on hand so I used fresh duck foie pieces I had left over in the freezer, let it reach near room temp, put between two sheets of plastic wraps and bashed it into a longish, flatish sheet which I peeled and put on top of the filet (before rolling the duxelle over it).  The idea is that the fat will melt into the duxelle and crust during the baking process.

I would like to make Beef Wellington for Christmas Dinner, and I found this old thread. Has anyone else successfully made BW ahead and frozen it? I need to make it in advance - at least the day before - because I'm serving brunch for 10 followed by the dinner for 15 on Christmas. Anything that I can do ahead of time, is going to get done . . . .

If I make it the day before, would it be OK to merely refrigerate until dinner time? Does this affect the cooking time? I'm going to follow the CI recipe, except that I'm planning to encase the duxelle/pate mixture in proscuitto before wrapping with pastry in the hope that this will keep the filling from making the pastry soggy.

And and all advice is greatly appreciated (including any side suggestions that can be made ahead!)

[Doodad]

I'd like to make a beef wellington using port tenerloin.  Is this a simple substitutio or are ther adaptations I should be aware of?  Thanks in advance.

←

I made a cajun wellington (or should it be Wellitoux?) one year at Christmas.

I made a crawfish/tasso paste to sub for the pate. It came out great! Give it a shot.

[TheSwede]

One of the staples in Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen was a Lamb Wellington. It used a duxelles, but no pâté. He also made a more traditional Beef Wellington on "The F Word," but again no pâté -- just duxelles. His restaurants serve Beef Wellington as well, but I don't know if they follow the same recipe.

I've never had a traditional Beef Wellington, but the combination of pâté and beef tenderloin (or any other meat) just doesn't sound too appetizing to me; too overwhelming. And you know -- spank me and call me Karl Marx -- like some over the top, bourgeois yuppie surf 'n turf extravaganza.

Whether you agree with Ramsay's approach on that count or not, there is a really cool part of his recipe that I've not seen elsewhere, that handles the same thing Louisa Chu addressed ("... layer a crepe between the puff pastry and the beef/duxelles/foie gras. This keeps the moisture contained and the puff pastry from getting soggy.")

Ramsay's recipe smears the tenderloin with mustard and the duxelles, but then wraps it in parma ham before chilling it, and finally wrapping it in the pastry. I can testify to that method's efficiency... I made a Pork Wellington, and instead of the duxelles, I used a prune mixture and wrapped it all in Prosciutto, and the pastry never got soggy.

Good luck with it -- please do report back on it! Here's Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington recipe from "The F Word."

←

You can also find that recipe in the Cook's Book, in the chapter on meat written by Marcus Waring, Ramsey's eternal sous chef (now running his own resturant in Ramseys empire). Really good book, BTW.

[MSRadell]

I would like to make Beef Wellington for Christmas Dinner, and I found this old thread.  Has anyone else successfully made BW ahead and frozen it?  I need to make it in advance - at least the day before - because I'm serving brunch for 10 followed by the dinner for 15 on Christmas.  Anything that I can do ahead of time, is going to get done . . . .

If I make it the day before, would it be OK to merely refrigerate until dinner time?  Does this affect the cooking time?  I'm going to follow the CI recipe, except that I'm planning to encase the duxelle/pate mixture in proscuitto before wrapping with pastry in the hope that this will keep the filling from making the pastry soggy.

And and all advice is greatly appreciated (including any side suggestions that can be made ahead!)

←

If you make it the day before just refrigerating it is fine. If you make it farther ahead and freeze it put it back into the refrigerator 24 hours in advance so it defrosts fully before cooking.

I've made it ahead and both refrigerated and frozen it prior to cooking. In my opinion refrigeration for 24 hours does not affect the flavor or texture in all, freezing seems to make the pastry a little tougher. If you have any concerns just make the test batch ahead to see what results you get.

[kbjesq]

If you make it the day before just refrigerating it is fine.  If you make it farther ahead and freeze it put it back into the refrigerator 24 hours in advance so it defrosts fully before cooking.

I've made it ahead and both refrigerated and frozen it prior to cooking.  In my opinion refrigeration for 24 hours does not affect the flavor or texture in all, freezing seems to make the pastry a little tougher.  If you have any concerns just make the test batch ahead to see what results you get.

←

Thank you! I am actually going to do a test run tomorrow. I've never made BW before, so I don't want to experiment on the 16 people that are coming for xmas dinner.

I'm also curious about the proper temperature for the initial roasting. Most recipes say to cook the beef to 120 F, then chill, wrap, etc. and proceed with the final roasting. I'm worried that pre-cookinig the tenderloin to 120 F will result in an overdone final result. The majority of these guests like their meat extremely rare - as in a maximum of 125 F. I'm thinking of cooking only to 110 F, then chilling and proceeding. Any thoughts here?

[MSRadell]

Thank you!  I am actually going to do a test run tomorrow.  I've never made BW before, so I don't want to experiment on the 16 people that are coming for xmas dinner. 

I'm also curious about the proper temperature for the initial roasting.  Most recipes say to cook the beef to 120 F, then chill, wrap, etc. and proceed with the final roasting.  I'm worried that pre-cookinig the tenderloin to 120 F will result in an overdone final result.  The majority of these guests like their meat extremely rare - as in a maximum of 125 F.  I'm thinking of cooking only to 110 F, then chilling and proceeding.  Any thoughts here?

←

I certainly agree, I never pre-cook the meat higher than 110-115 F. And my final target is 130-135 F, based on that I would target 110 or maybe a little less for your pre-cooking. Of course the size of the piece of meat affects the temperature significantly too as does how long after its removal from refrigerator the meat is cooked.

Good luck and your test, hope it goes well!

[kbjesq]

Here is the result of my test run. I followed Gordon Ramsey's recipe (as shown on YouTube.com). My tasters decreed that it was a success - although I thought that the pastry could have been a bit more crispy. Also, I will reduce the salt a bit when I prepare this for xmas dinner.

[lucylou95816]

good god! That looks wonderful. I want some right now.

[Fugu]

What's the fat layer around the beef, it looks like a trimmed fat cap from a ribeye?

[Ce'nedra]

kbjesq: That looks absolutely delightful! LOVE LOVE the golden brown of that particular corner hehe.

I've actually never eaten Beef Wellington before but your creation is realllyyy tempting me to!

I shall look up the recipe on youtube.

Did you find it difficult? Or easy peasy?