I want to try to make this for Thanksgiving, any advice?
My biggest problem with baking is that I usually mess up on the time and/or temperature. Sometimes the things I’ve made are still pretty raw in the middle, despite the time being what it says in the receipe. I’ve had that happen a few times and don’t want it to happen to this
While looking up receipes online, I started wondering about the puff pastry that you wrap the beef in. Wouldn’t cooking the beef for long enough and at a temperature that’s hot enough, totally burn the puff pastry? Should I start out by covering it with aluminum foil?
A lot of receipes also call for the beef to be brushed with some mustard. I’ve personally never had any kind of steak with mustard on it, so I’m afraid of how it would taste. Then again, I once made meat loaf with the recommended applesauce mixed in it and didn’t taste it at all, so maybe the mustard won’t be overpowering. I have Dijon mustard, and I’m planning on using very little of it on the outside. Does the beef really get all mustard-y?
Lastly, I don’t have access to a butcher. I’m simply going to get the meat from the market. That means I have less choices. Is there a typical recommended cut of beef I should use? Does it really matter that much? I mean, could I make it with ground beef and have it come out looking and tasting like a meat loaf? Or would that totally ruin it?
You have to understand that your traditional Beef Wellington produces VERY, VERY rare beef. Unless you are cooking for people who love to eat warm, barely cooked meat, it is a really crap dish.
Tenderloin is traditional; if you make individual Wellingtons it’s more work but the meat is more likely to get cooked enough for those who don’t love very rare meat to eat it.
There’s supposed to be duxelles and perhaps even pate for a true Wellington.
I like rare beef, but my family generally doesn’t. That’s why I’m concerened about making it.
What I have planned now is a sort of dumbed down version. I read about the mustard, the puff pastry, and pate, and the beef, but I’m going to use simpler items to make it. The pate’s going to be pureed regular button mushrooms and white onions. I’ll cover the beef with that once I brush on the mustard.
As far as the puff pastry, I’m going to use those Pillsbury croissant rolls that you can put in the oven and bake. Those things cook pretty fast, so that’s why I’m afraid the beef is going to come out too raw. Should I use a high temp (450-500) with the foil on or a lower temp 375-425 with the foil off? I want it to cook thoroughly, I can eat raw beef some other time.
Oh, and I’m also planning on making some today in advance, just to test out the receipe and see if it tastes good. I’m hoping the experimenting will pay off. So gimme your suggestions, I need the meat to be the #1 priority, I can take away or add the mustard/pate as necessary
Puff pastry is available at most major grocery stores. It is a really different beast than crescent rolls, and easy to use. The txture of the finished product is quite different I guess I don’t quite get the motivation to so completely change a recipe when many of the ingredients aren’t that hard to come by.
I hope your recipe comes out ok, but someday you may want to follow an actual beef Wellington recipe and see how that works for you.
I want to make Pommes Anna, can I use apples instead of potatoes, and how does it come out if I make it in the microwave, and use raspberry jelly instead of mustard and don’t time it?
I’m making changes to the receipe because I know my tastes better than you do, or whoever came up with these receipes. If I’m generally not enamored of mustard with beef, then I’m going to use less of it, or not at all. Besides, I didn’t ask wtf was wrong with my receipe, I asked if it can be made using the changes and taste generally the same, or come out not raw. And make it next summer? What, is that the season for cows or something? I said I’m making it for Thanksgiving, as in about 10 days from now since you obviously can’t read, and yes I’m serious, but I’m not going to follow some arcane rules on cooking if I have had success bending them. If you don’t have something constructive to say, then go pit my house rules receipe and throw your shit all over that.
Thanks for all those with useful things to say though, I appreciate it. I’ll look for the puff pastry, but I’ve never been able to find it. I think I know how it tastes, so since it’s all bread anyways, I prefer the croissant rolls. I just want to know if puff pastry would be smarter to use than the rolls because maybe it will be less likely to burn? What kind of oven temperature are am I looking at?
I make it all the time. If your guests are wusses, precook the beef. Just 15 minutes I. A hot oven, or sear it in a pan. Even Ramsay does it. That’s a really good recipe for it, by the way.
A sous vide would be perfect to help prep this - as a whole huge multiperson version.
SV it overnight or from the morning/requisite time to get it to the perfect internal temp. Pop it onto a scorchingly hot cast iron skillet to brown the outside, and then wrap per recipe. That way you don’t have to mess about with a thermometer and it is one less detail to muck with.
Starting it sous vide to get the huge hunk o beast to temp would let you make it to a perfect med rare or even medium if that is how you roll. I know that some people have issues with proper bloody rare wellies. Heck, with a SV you could actually cook the interior to that nasty grey of well done without actually drying the whole tenderloin to leather. [where is the blarghy smiley?]
Most people don’t have sous vide equipment sitting around in their kitchens. Those sous vide ovens and vaccum sealers are expensive (but, hey, if Yog’s got the equipment, it’s great advice).
My advice to the Yog is not to try Wellington without practice. It almost always turns out crappy on the first attempt, and it’s not something that should be prepared for Philistines who can’t appreciate rare beef anyway. Even if you’re going to do a dumbed down, overcooked version, practice it first. Give it at least one or two trial runs. It’s not the kind of thing you want to entertain with if you’ve never tried it before.
Skip the mustard, by the way, and get a tenderloin. The beef has to be tender. Don’t try to use a pot roast or anything.
I also wouldn’t use button mushrooms for the duxelle. Those have no flavor. At least use portabellas. Mince them up with garlic and shallots, saute in olive oil, salt and pepper, add a little bit of whatever wine or sherry you have around, reduce, slather on.
I’ve made plenty of nice medium-rare Beef Wellingtons; the puff pastry doesn’t cook so fast that you can’t get to medium-rare, which is all you’d really want tenderloin to get to anyway.
That’s the duxelles, not the pâté. Pâté for Beef Wellington is typically a fine-textured pâté de foie gras.
Puff pastry is in the freezer section, and I’ve never seen a grocery store that doesn’t have it - it’s very common. If you don’t see it, ask. Pepperidge Farm is the typical brand. I’ve cooked it for 30 minutes without it burning, which is enough time to cook your average Beef Wellington to medium rare. I’m not sure how crescent rolls match up to that.
That’s fine, but I think the issue that DonLogan (and me, though I’ll try to be more polite :D) have is that Beef Wellington means something specific - a tenderloin, covered in pâté and duxelles, wrapped in puff pastry and baked. What you describe is not Beef Wellington. It might end up being delicious, but at best, it’s a variation on Beef Wellington, not the thing itself.
Here’s the “No Nightmare Beef Wellington” recipe from Epicurious, wherein you pretty much cook everything separately and assemble it. It sure solves the problem of guests’ preferences as to the doneness of the meat.
