Beef Wellington | Meaning, Origin, Ingredients, & Pastry (2024)

FAQs

Beef Wellington | Meaning, Origin, Ingredients, & Pastry? ›

Beef Wellington is a steak dish of English origin, made out of fillet steak coated with pâté (often pâté de foie gras) and duxelles, wrapped in puff pastry, then baked. Some recipes include wrapping the coated meat in a crêpe or dry-cured ham to retain the moisture and prevent it from making the pastry soggy.

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.

It is generally agreed that the dish was created in celebration of the first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, and his victory at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18 1815. The Duke was given his title after defeating Napoleon Bonaparte the year before, and not long after he became Prime Minister.

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.

Beef én Croute Recipe

The main difference between this Beef én Croute and a Beef Wellington is that this is a puff pastry parcel of fillet steak topped with pate and a Beef Wellington has no topping. In this recipe we are going to use pureed mushrooms and onions instead of pate.

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.

Wrap in puff pastry and bake: For the nicest-looking Wellington, use a puff pastry that comes in one sheet, so there aren't any visible seams. (I like Dufour, which is a very available all-butter puff pastry.) If you can only find a pastry that comes in two sheets, pinch them together before rolling out.

2) The crepes protect the pastry from excess moisture as the beef cooks, and also helps the beef stay joicy and tender once cooked. 3) Be very careful to tightly wrap your beef – the tighter the wrapping, the better the shape, which will result in more even cooking.

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.

But on top of its tedious cooking process, beef Wellington is also expensive. The dish typically calls for beef tenderloin, the tender cut of beef that filet mignon comes from, in addition to pricey prosciutto. With these high-priced meats, beef Wellington isn't exactly budget-friendly.

Which is healthier phyllo or puff pastry? ›

Even better, switch your pastry from shortcrust or puff to filo. This is the lowest-fat pastry by far, with 2.9g fat per 100g. This compares with 26.2g for puff or 31.4g for shortcrust. Filo is the lowest-calorie option too, and it's easy to use.

In some cases, you could use them interchangeably – like for a pie crust or strudel. But for things that are very fluffy and flaky- like Baklava – you'd definitely want to use Phyllo dough.

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.

The Beef Wellington is Gordon Ramsay's signature dish – and once you taste it, you'll see why!

In most of Ramsay's restaurants, you can find it on the menu. However, Ramsay has revealed his favorite American food is grits topped with shrimp and Parmesan cheese.

If you want to dress up your chateaubriand just a bit, one show-stopper of a traditional recipe is Beef Wellington. Essentially, it's chateaubriand coated in mushroom duxelles and liver pâté and rolled in puff pastry. There are many fabulous recipes for this classic if you want to spend the time.

Suet crust pastry is made from suet, flour, salt and water and always contains baking powder as a raising agent. Self-raising flour also works well when making this pastry, or you can add 4 tsp of baking powder to any 450g / 1lb of plain flour.

We used crescent rolls to make this recipe but you can also use puff pastry if you like. Wrap the beef patty in the dough, brush with egg wash and season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet seam side down and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.