Beef wellington my Christmas (with pics)

Zenduri

Zenduri

Zenduri

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Foodies assemble!

I'm planning on doing a beef wellington for Christmas for the first time instead of a Turkey and I welcome any suggestions from the foodies of OCUK specifically as well re the weight of the fillet when feeding 2 people. Going to hit up my butchers in the morning for a nice fillet and while i have the ability to make my own puff pastry i cant be arsed so going to go with premade.

Aside from english mustard on the fillet and some parma ham, any recommendations when prepping the duxelles and or any tips for cooking? (rare obviously)

Side note this will be my first time making a beef wellington and i have a thermometer on the ready so what temps should I be aiming for?
 
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check youtube for Gordon Ramsey's beef wellington - he'll tell you all you need to know.

Wellington is recommended to be cooked medium rare - which is 50-53 degrees temperature internally; This should then raise up to around 56 degrees when resting out of the oven.
500g of fillet should be a decent fillet for two, just depends how hungry you are! :p For 500g of fillet you're looking around 35 minutes at 185 or so;

You don't do anything with the Duxelles, clean them, stick them in a food processor so they pulse down super fine, then cook so all the water comes out of them in a pan which has nothing else in - no oil, butter etc. Season fillet, seer fillet, then mustard around the outside and wrap it up - just make sure there's no holes in the parma ham, else your pastry will be ruined / ruined.

Make sure your knife is sharp when cutting (serrated preferably); else you'll just fudge the pastry.
 
I find that parma ham can tear and make slicing the wellington a bit awkward so I usually bin that off and use a very thin pancake and a layer of spinach instead. Cook the spinach in advance, squeeze it to get the water out and get it as dry as you can.
 
Rare can be a bit tricky as the pastry might be a but under, for a 2 person one I do 38 mins at 200C , pastry perfect and meat MR to rare

temp wise 50-52 for rare, personally i would aim for 54C

as above follow the Ramsay recipe, I put a little white wine and thyme in the duxelle, thyme before blitzing and wine when in the pan
 
I've always found the best success when making individual Wellingtons. That way, you can cook the steaks differently, to suit different people at the same table
There's a good, easy recipe on Cranble that I've used before - Good, mainly because you can mess around with it to suit your preferences and still get decent results: https://cranble.com/recipes/personal-beef-wellingtons-with-a-watercress-and-pate-filling/

I've never needed to use a thermometer for cooking, and if you're not fussy enough to hand-make your own pastry (quite understandable), I wouldn't think a thermometer is really that essential for you either...
A tip from Marco Pierre White - Cooking is about you. Cook for yourself, do it how you like it. If you prefer it well-done, do that. If you want sage instead of parsley, do that.

Just give it a bash and have fun with it.
 
Cheers for the help guys. picked up a 500g Fillet from the butchers and fought some ******** in sainsburys for the last of the puff pastry this afternoon lol I was using Gordons beef wellington as the basis for my plans. Also havre a thermometer and probe coming form amazon this evening so i can dial in the meat temp when cooking.

Cheers Hilly and Rotty for the temps and timings thats exactly what i was looking for.
 
Cheers guys. Picked up all my ingredients and the Amazon drivers just dropped off my thermometer so i'm basically all good to go. I'll try to remember to take a pic once its done and throw it in the now eating thread, fingers crossed i dont mess it up lol
 
ttaskmaster said:
That way, you can cook the steaks differently, to suit different people at the same table
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But there's only one way to cook beef fillet :confused: ;)

ttaskmaster said:
and if you're not fussy enough to hand-make your own pastry (quite understandable), I wouldn't think a thermometer is really that essential for you either...
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Disagree. My Thermapen is the best kitchen tool I have. Why guess when you can know how well done meat is.
 
@Hilly and @Rotty
One quick question when searing the fillet, room temp or fridge temp when searing? Room temp would make sense to bring the outside upto the highest temp sooner to get the sear but also thinking wouldnt fridge temp ensure the core fo the fuillet is starting to cook while searing?

Also im going to sear and wrap christmas eve so im good to go on christmas day so room temp or fridge temp before cooking?
 
Room temp for sear

When bringing out to cook I would put into pastry when cold as it sill be firmer and then leave to room temp before going in oven

Make sure that you use floured hands when handling
 
Room temp for seer like Rotty says.
Let the meat sit and fully cool down before putting anywhere near the pastry.
You can wrap and leave sit for 24 hours to firm up, but not massively needed.
Don’t overdo the seer - super super hot pan, seer it on all sides and top and bottom, but make sure you don’t cook the meat, else you’ll ruin the end product (obviously you can always cook meat more if temps don’t match what you want, but you can never undo cooking times if it’s over)
 
Cheers again for the advice guys its appreciated. Picture dump of where im at.

Just need to egg wash it and bang it in the over tomorrow and i have the thermometer probe at the ready. Also parboiled some potatoes, parnsips and carrots and roughed them up in ready for roasting them tomorrow.I only have mash potatoes, yorkshire pudding and gravy to do tomorrow and then cook everything else thats prepped.

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Did you put the meat in the oven on low for a bit like it showed in the second link I shared, i think he put it in for 18 mins. Then you cool it then wrap it then cook it for the final time. Unless some other recipe says not to?
 
SkeeterUK said:
Did you put the meat in the oven on low for a bit like it showed in the second link I shared, i think he put it in for 18 mins. Then you cool it then wrap it then cook it for the final time. Unless some other recipe says not to?
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Nope seered it in a pan with a little oil then seasoned and applied mustard while it was warm as per Gordon Ramsay
 
Welp mixed outcome, looked and tasted amazing but didnt didnt realise how much the temp would rise while resting, took out at 50 but then kept rising to 68 so it turned out a bit overcooked

Cheers for the help @Rotty and @Hilly. Think ill remove it at 40degrees internal temp next time

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