Best Beef Wellington - Beef filet wrapped in pastry (2024)

FAQs

What is the best puff pastry for Beef Wellington? ›

A center-cut beef tenderloin is also known as a Châteubriand. For best results, use a high-quality all-butter puff pastry, such as Dufour. Alternatively, make your own using this recipe. Foie gras pâté can be used in place of the fresh foie gras.

A large center cut piece of beef tenderloin is used to make Beef Wellington. Beef tenderloin is the muscle that individual filet mignon steaks are cut from. A whole beef tenderloin however is fatter in the middle and tapered toward the ends. You can think of it as the center cut of tenderloin.

The classic wellington recipes wrap the beef and mushroom mixture in crepes (thin pancakes) before the puff pastry coating as the crepes act as a barrier, absorbing any moisture from the beef and mushrooms and allowing the pastry to bake properly in the oven.

Not cooking the mushroom mixture long enough

Unfortunately, beef Wellington often falls victim to soggy pastry from excess moisture. The beef Sirloin juices are one explanation, but mushroom duxelles can also cause excess liquid to soak into the crust.

Then fry up some chopped mushrooms and shallots in butter before wrapping the beef in prosciutto and the mushroom mixture. All that's left is unraveling some store-bought puff pastry and making a beautiful, woven, floral design before baking. It's hard to cut into this masterpiece, but the taste is worth it!

Use a rolling pin to roll out a pie crust on a lightly floured surface. Place one of your beef filets in the middle of the pie crust. Put half of the mushroom pate on top of the filet and top with one of your spare mushroom caps.

The best cut of meat for Beef Wellington is a nice beef tenderloin, but you could really make this with a fillet steak or filet mignon if you want to try making smaller, individual beef wellingtons rather than a large one that you slice.

Bake in 425°F oven 35 to 50 minutes or until golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of roast registers 135°F for medium rare; 150°F for medium.

Beef wellington is not an easy dish to prepare with perfection. For starters, getting the tenderloin steak right is a challenge in itself. It has to be tender on the inside but decently firm on the outside, so it doesn't get mushed inside. The pâté and the duxelles are like preparing two individual dishes themselves.

Consider Crepes In Your Beef Wellington Crust

Instead of the final layer before the pastry being prosciutto, the celebrity chef wraps his beef in an extra layer of crepes, creating another barrier from the moisture of the meat and duxelles.

Should Beef Wellington be cooked straight from the fridge? ›

You can prepare the Wellington up to 24 hours in advance at this point, but make sure you remove it from the fridge 30-40 minutes before the final bake.

Blind-bake your base before adding a filling to help to firm the base and avoid liquid being absorbed into it. Prick the base with a fork to help steam escape, cover with foil or parchment, and weigh it down with ceramic baking beans, uncooked rice or white sugar. Then bake at 220°C (425°F) for 15 minutes.

Cook the mushrooms until they release all their liquid

If they retain too much of it after being cooked in the pan, it will leak out onto the pastry. This will make it soggy and interfere with the carefully made layers of the Beef Wellington, as the pastry will likely break.

Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 425ºF. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat 1 large egg in a small bowl.

Like many famous meals, the exact origin of Beef Wellington is unknown, though it was most likely inspired by a handful of places and cultures. The widely accepted story is that it was created to celebrate Arthur Wellesley, Irish general of the British army, becoming the first Duke of Wellington—hence the name.

Remove tenderloin from plastic wrap and place on bottom of puff pastry. Brush the other three edges of the pastry with egg wash, then tightly roll beef into pastry. Step 8Once the log is fully covered in puff pastry, trim any extra pastry, then crimp edges with a fork to seal well.

If a puff pastry brand is called for specifically in a recipe, it's likely Dufour. This is because the brand uses simple ingredients (butter, flour, salt, lemon juice, and water) and is totally painless to work with.

Lower the fat content of your wellington by using filo pastry instead of puff, eliminating butter, a non-stick frying pan to reduce the amount of oil needed, replacing the pate and using herbs and garlic to boost flavour without needing salt.

The main differences between puff pastry and phyllo dough are their fat content and preparation. Puff pastry is a laminated dough that gets its signature airy puff from layers of butter, while phyllo dough is comparatively low-fat. Phyllo dough is mostly flour and water and can dry out easily.