Beef Wellington

[Gary Bobier]

I have a dinner coming up and we will serve Beef Wellington. It has been a number of years since I have made it. I remember that protions of the puff pastry crust were a bit soggy and I did not enjoy that. Any thoughts on how to stop that soggyness. I will be taking the meat and searing it well, coating it with a bit of stone ground mustard. I will layout my prosciuto and put my mushroom mix on the prosciuto and then wrap the roast. I will then wrap the whloe thing with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour. Next I will cover with the puff and coat with beaten egg. Roast for 40 min at 425 degrees for an internal temp of 120 degrees. Rest for 5 min and serve. I was thinking of puting the roast on a wire rack so the puff could cook uniformly on the bottom. The dish will be served with a roast stuffed quail with a garlic veal glaze and roast Belgin endive. Do you feel the Wellington needs a sauce?

[Dale Williams]

Sounds great. The rack seems like a good idea, except with the weight of the filling I'd be afraid the pastry would have wire rack sink in, would mess up presentation. Do you have anything like one of those "pizza pans" that are flat with tiny perforations for air?

[Jenise]

Gary, check out this thread I posted a few months ago:

http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=46405&p=381595&hilit=Beef+Wellington#p381595

Now you know where I stand on Wellingtons! Love the idea, but on the plate it never measures up.

So, re the wire rack? That worries me. The sogginess is coming from meat+gravity, not the surface of your roasting pan. If you use wire the pastry will swell between the wire rods and the pastry could get pretty torn up in the removal process.

Best (and really, the only good) beef wellingtons I ever made? Deconstructed. In one case, I rolled the puff pastry with chopped chives and a little parmesan cheese, then cut it into large squares which baked into lovely pillows. At service, each was topped with a nice slice of rare roast filet mignon and then topped with a modest garnish of butter-vermouth-sliced mushroom pan sauce. The other result I was happy with involved the same roast filet mignon idea (I do various rubs, like coffee-red chile or ground dried porcini mushroom) but this time the filet was on the bottom, topped by a small mushroom tart in which a standard mushroom cap was filled with a swipe of French mustard and then a wad of foie gras pate and wrapped in puff pastry, pate side up, seam underneath, and baked. A drizzle of demi glace completed the dish.

[Fred Sipe]

Gary, check out this thread I posted a few months ago:

Best (and really, the only good) beef wellingtons I ever made? Deconstructed. In one case, I rolled the puff pastry with chopped chives and a little parmesan cheese, then cut it into large squares which baked into lovely pillows. At service, each was topped with a nice slice of rare roast filet mignon and then topped with a modest garnish of butter-vermouth-sliced mushroom pan sauce. The other result I was happy with involved the same roast filet mignon idea (I do various rubs, like coffee-red chile or ground dried porcini mushroom) but this time the filet was on the bottom, topped by a small mushroom tart in which a standard mushroom cap was filled with a swipe of French mustard and then a wad of foie gras pate and wrapped in puff pastry, pate side up, seam underneath, and baked. A drizzle of demi glace completed the dish.

OMG do those sound good!!!

[Jenise]

Fred, both were better than any true Beef Wellington I've ever had, and they give the cook a lot more control in getting the parts both cooked and presented perfectly.

[Barb Downunder]

I have recently seen a number of TV chefs use a crepe to wrap the meat and mushroom mix, then wrapping the lot int the pastry.thus mopping up the juices to prevent sogginess.
But by golly it seemed like way too much carb to me.

[Bill Spohn]

I think you can buy the meat in pastry ready made and save a lot of work..... (I second Jenise - very hard not to have soggy crust unless you use very lean meat and not much else inside).