What Does Beef Wellington Taste Like?

Why This Recipe Works

• Browning the beef gives it complexity and meaty depth.
• Tying the tenderloin results in more even cooking and enhances the appearance of the finished dish.
• The moisture barrier created by Phyllo keeps the puff pastry from becoming soggy.
• The tenderloin is simpler to wrap when there is a double layer of plastic wrap.

The prime rib may rule the holiday dinner table, but the beef Wellington would be my choice for the triple threat of dictator-for-life, president, and first tiger. There has undoubtedly never been a more decadent roast in the post-Roman canon.

The origin of the dish is not exactly known, and theres not much primary research I can add to the wealth of theories that arent already aptly covered by the Wikipedia article on the subject (tl;dr it might be named after the 1st Duke of Wellington, it might be a patriotic English name for a French dish, it might be named after a pair of shoes, or it may be from the land of Hobbits and Nelwyns). But were not after pedagogical discussions of origin or etymology. Were interested in one thing, and one thing only: deliciousness.

Theres no doubt that beef Wellington is delicious. The exterior is a light, crisp, buttery crust, glazed a deep, shiny golden brown, and twinkling with sea salt crystals, so how can it not be? Slice through it to reveal layers of some of the best ingredients available in the Western world, including foie gras at the bottom and a center of medium-rare, buttery-soft beef tenderloin at the top.

Is there really much we can do to improve the recipe, or what exactly is left to explore, for this absolute classic and the pinnacle of decadent roasts.

Well not all recipes need overhauls. Sometimes all it takes is a few minor adjustments to bring out the best in each ingredient. Lets go through the Wellington from the outside in.

Choosing Your Ingredients

After all, tenderloin is tenderloin, right? Well, that’s pretty much true, so what else can we do with the beef? The tenderloin is possibly the cut of the cow that is least impacted by grading and the varying amounts of marbling (intramuscular fat) that go along with it.

See, the flavor, juiciness, and tenderness of a rich cut like a ribeye or flatiron steak are closely related to its USDA grade. Prime beef will be tastier and have more fat, at least to the palates of most people. On the other hand, choice or select meat will be less flavorful, tougher, and less juicy.

On the other hand, no matter which steer it comes from, a tenderloin is a very lean cut. The difference in tenderloin quality is not as great because a tenderloin from a Prime-graded steer won’t have much more fat than one from a Select-graded steer. Thats OK. Tenderloin is emphatically not about fat and flavor. Its about tenderness. The tenderloin, or psoas major, is one of the steer’s least-used muscles and stays small, underdeveloped, and tender for the duration of the steer’s life. This translates to a buttery tenderness on the plate.

It also translates to blandness. Theres no two ways about it. A tenderloin is a bland cut. Take a bland but tender cut of beef and try to wrap as much flavor and fat around it as you can; that’s one of the reasons beef Wellington exists.

The start of this process is to sear it. In order to give beef complexity and meaty depth, browning creates a ton of new flavorful compounds that don’t occur naturally in beef. The final dish will look better and have more even cooking if the tenderloin is tied with twine at regular intervals to keep it in a nice round shape while it sears.

Well, we’ll get to the foie gras and mushrooms, but for now, I’m going to use a tip I picked up from Gordon Ramsay’s Wellington: mustard.

I don’t like the infamously angry chef, but when he’s right, he’s right, and mustard gives the final dish a new dimension of flavor that enhances and draws attention to its overtly rich primary flavors in a way that I find particularly enticing. It also adds acidity, lightness, and heat. To make my mustard more pungent, I cut it with a ton of horseradish.

The Duxelles

Lets move on to the mushrooms. One of the earliest common preparations in contemporary French cookbooks is called duxelles; the original recipe dates to the early 17th century. Its most basic form consists of shallots and finely chopped mushrooms cooked down in butter into a rich, flavorful mass. It stuffs chickens, fills tarts, and, in the case of a Wellington, completely encircles the beef.

Again, at this stage, were all about adding complexity and luxury to what is already a pretty luxuriously complex dish. How do we do it? Lets start by using a variety of mushrooms. As any mycophile or plumber from Brooklyn with a fetish for royalty can tell you, the variations of flavor in the mushroom kingdom are vast. Why settle for just one?

I like to use three at the very least: portobello, shiitake, and button mushrooms. All can be easily located in any supermarket and each contributes something unique to the gathering. Use oysters, chanterelles, morels, lobster, giant powderpuff, mousseron, or anything else that takes your fancy if you want to make it extra fancy. If you have the money, adding some chopped truffles to the duxelles at the very end of the preparation would not be unwelcome.

Except for chopping the mushrooms in a food processor, our duxelles begins similarly to the traditional recipe. Butter-cooked mushrooms that have released their moisture are followed by a small amount of chopped shallots and chopped thyme that are also cooked until soft.

We’re already using foie gras, mushrooms, and tenderloin, so why not add a little more opulence?

I use Cognac to deglaze the pan, but any high-proof, dry, barrel-aged spirit will work. If you’d prefer, we have bourbon, Scotch, bourbon, applejack, and even dark rum.

I add a tiny bit of soy sauce after adding some heavy cream, which thickens and binds the mushrooms into a paste to better stick to the meat. Due to its high glutamic acid content, soy sauce is a natural umami bomb. It makes things taste meatier, more savory. As a result, the tenderloin tastes more like an entire steer with all of its flavor concentrated into a single tenderloin-sized package, and the mushrooms taste more like, well, mushrooms.

The Foie Gras

A pâté of some kind is typically smothered over the beef in traditional Beef Wellington recipes to add fat and flavor as it bakes. How can we improve upon this?.

I sear off a few ounces of foie gras in a hot skillet, cut the slabs in half lengthwise, then layer them over the beef, replacing the pâté with actual pieces of fresh seared foie gras instead. When the dish is finished baking, the foie fat slowly renders, basting the beef in its juices so that it oozes more juice than even a fatty prime rib roast.

Don’t throw away the rendered fat from the skillet you used to cook the foie gras; instead, add it to the mushroom duxelles.

Now that all of our components are in place, it’s time to begin the assembly process.

Assembling Your Beef Wellington

A beef Wellington is actually not a particularly challenging dish to prepare, even with all of its steps and ingredients. When you bake it, only two real serious issues develop. The first is keeping the puff pastry from turning soggy. There are a lot of juices trying to escape from their puff pastry enclosure due to the abundance of fatty ingredients—the foie gras, the duxelles. To keep these juices from leaking out of the pastry, they must be contained.

The second problem is one of timing. For puff pastry to properly brown and puff, it takes at least 30 to 40 minutes, which is more than enough time for a tenderloin to overcook.

Lets start with tackling the first problem: moisture.

The Moisture Barrier

There are a few popular approaches to the issue, but I don’t think any of them are particularly appealing. The first involves wrapping the beef in layers of shingled raw cured ham (typically prosciutto). From a flavor standpoint, this idea is top notch. The beef is relatively easy to wrap because the ham blends in so well with the foie and duxelles. Thin sliced ham is like natures Velcro in that way.

The issue is that it doesn’t do much to stop moisture from escaping. In fact, as it cooks, it creates moisture of its own, which exacerbates the issue.

The alternative method entails making a thin crêpe and wrapping the entire thing in it. The crêpe dissolves and becomes soggy, and on top of that, who wants to bother making a crêpe when they’ve already committed to spending a lot of time in the kitchen? The issue is that it doesn’t work very well.

I suggest prosciutto and a sheet of phyllo dough as a much easier, more efficient, and quicker substitute.

Its pretty much custom made for the job. Since phyllo dough is extremely thin, it doesn’t distract us with flavors or textures that we don’t want and is strong enough to enclose moist fillings without leaking. Its also available inexpensively in any supermarket.

I use a single sheet of phyllo, layer some prosciutto on top, then top that with duxelles, and I’m ready to go.

Wrapping

Wrapping is generally simple as long as the duxelles have cooled to a paste-like consistency. The secret is to use two layers of plastic wrap, exactly as you would when making makizushi (sushi rolls) from a bamboo mat. Indeed, the process is pretty much identical. The nori layer is made of phyllo and ham, the rice layer is made of duxelles, and the beef and foie gras layer is made of fish and vegetables. Its only the scale thats different.

I lay the beef along the bottom edge of the phyllo/ham that has been covered in mushrooms, shingle the foie on top, and then roll.

After rolling, I use several layers of clingfilm to re-wrap the entire package as tightly as I can, twisting the ends. This step is absolutely crucial because it will determine the Wellington’s final shape.

Here, we address the second issue—not overcooking the meat while properly completing the pastry. Making sure the beef is completely chilled before it is wrapped will take care of this issue. The entire roll should now return to the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to two days to chill it completely.

The Pastry

Make your own puff pastry (you overachiever, you) if you want to be a true food hero. However, I don’t think it’s necessary with so many great frozen puff pastry brands available.

One of the foods that freezes the best is puff pastry, which keeps its flavor and puffing ability throughout its time in the freezer. Puff pastry is similar to pie dough. Examining the ingredients is the key to choosing a quality brand; the only fat present should be butter, and there should be no artificial or natural flavorings of any kind. Butter provides enough flavor on its own, thanks.

I use Dufour brand puff pastry, which is pretty widely available.

It will hold its shape very well once the beef is chilled, making wrapping it simple. I roll out my puff pastry dough and extend it a few inches past the beef roll’s ends before brushing it with egg wash. The key in this situation is to position the foie gras on top and the puff pastry seam on the bottom.

You can accomplish this by either placing the beef roll with the foie on top along the bottom edge of the pastry, or by placing it as shown above with the foie on the bottom. Roll the pastry away from you until the seams come together, then use a knife to trim the excess.

You already know how to seal puff pastry dough if you’ve ever wrapped gifts. I begin by folding in the sides, then fold down the top flap before trimming the bottom flap with a knife. I then flip it over and tuck the flaps over, pressing them down so they stick, after repeating on both sides. The entire thing is turned over once more, then chilled for a final time in the refrigerator before baking. Since it can now be kept in the refrigerator for a few days, beef Wellington is one of the more gathering-friendly dishes I’ve encountered.

Just before baking, I brush it with more egg wash to give it a glossy sheen and deeper color, score it with a paring knife for aesthetic purposes, and generously season it with coarse, crunchy sea salt to give the pastry a pretzel-like crunch.

Baking and Carving

Nothing is worse than undercooked puff pastry that is bland and gooey; for best results, use a heat setting that is close to high. The moisture in the layers of butter within the pastry suddenly expands as a result of the initial burst of high heat, forcing the layers apart and giving the pastry its light, flaky texture.

High heat may seem like a bad idea given our problem with overcooked beef, but using it will actually help the meat cook more slowly than using a more moderate heat. How so?.

Vapor makes a great insulator. That’s how a Thermos can maintain its temperature so effectively, or why wooden houses have spaces within their walls. As the puff pastry quickly expands, you add a lot of air space to its structure, which improves its insulative qualities and permits the beef inside to cook more gently.

You are using a thermometer, aren’t you, and you know that at 425°F (218°C), a chilled tenderloin will take between 30 and 40 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 110 to 120°F (43 to 49°C) for rare to medium-rare. Serendipity? I think not. Try careful planning and sound science!.

As with any roast, you should give it some time to rest after taking it out of the oven so that it will slice up more juicy. And believe me, there will be juices. Precious juices.

It’s difficult to find anything more decadent than this, my friends. It’s complex, beefy, buttery, oozing with juices, and packed with flavor. But isn’t the whole point of the holidays to indulge excessively, live a life of decadence, and want to stuff everything you see into your stomach before the New Year?

Well, that and family and friends. Dont forget about them.

The Ultimate Beef Wellington Recipe

A rich mushroom duxelles, foie gras, prosciutto, and beef tenderloin are all wrapped in a buttery puff pastry crust.

• 1 center-cut beef tenderloin, about 2 pounds, silverskinned and fat-free (see note).
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon vegetable or canola oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 1 tablespoon Dijon, spicy brown, or hot English mustard
• Button, cremini, shiitake, portabello, or a mixture of mushrooms, 1 pound, cleaned, trimmed, and roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 medium shallots, finely diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup brandy, bourbon, cognac, or another spirit aged in barrels.
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 1/2-inch slabs of fresh foie gras, or 4 ounces, see note
• 1 sheet phyllo dough
• 1/4 pound prosciutto, sliced paper thin
• Flour, for dusting
• 14 ounces frozen or homemade puff pastry, thawed (see note)
• 1 egg, beaten
• Coarse sea salt, such as Maldon or fleur de sel
• 1 bunch finely minced chives

• Using butchers twine, tie tenderloin at 1-inch intervals. Trim ends of twine. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• In a cast iron or stainless steel skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil until smoking. Add the tenderloin and cook it without stirring for about two minutes, until the first side is well browned. Cook the tenderloin for about 10 minutes total, rotating it halfway through, until it is browned on all sides. Transfer to a large plate. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• In a small bowl, combine the horseradish, mustard, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Once the tenderloin is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the twine before applying the horseradish/mustard mixture to all surfaces. Place in refrigerator, uncovered. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Place half of the mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse just long enough to finely chop them. Scrape down the sides as necessary, and then re-distribute the mushrooms with a spatula as needed. Transfer to a bowl. Repeat with remaining mushrooms. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• In a 12-inch skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they have released all of their liquid and are beginning to sizzle. About 4 minutes more of cooking is required until the mushrooms start to brown and brown bits start to stick to the pan’s bottom. Add the shallots and thyme and cook for about two minutes, stirring frequently, until soft. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Add brandy. To release browned bits, scrape the skillet’s bottom with a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula. Continue to cook for another 4 minutes, or until brandy is almost dry. As the mixture continues to cook, stir frequently until it thickens and forms a single mass when you shake the skillet. Add heavy cream and soy sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and place in the refrigerator. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Season foie gras liberally with salt and pepper. In a small cast-iron or stainless steel skillet, heat the last half teaspoon of oil over high heat until smoking. Add the foie gras and cook it without stirring until the first side is nicely browned, about 30 seconds. Flip gently using a small offset spatula, then brown the other side for an additional 30 seconds. Transfer foie gras to a paper towel-lined plate. Add rendered fat to the mushroom mixture, stir to combine, and put the mixture back in the fridge. Each piece of cooked foie gras should be split in half horizontally using a sharp knife. Transfer to a plate and place in refrigerator. Allow all ingredients to chill for at least 30 minutes. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• On a cutting board, spread out a double layer of plastic wrap that is about 2 feet long and 1 foot wide. Lay phyllo dough on top of plastic wrap. Prosciutto should be layered on top of phyllo in a thin, even layer that overlaps, leaving a 2-inch border on the bottom and top of the phyllo dough. Spread mushroom mixture evenly over ham layer. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Along the very bottom edge of the ham/mushroom layer, place the tenderloin. Overtop the tenderloin, evenly distribute the sliced foie gras (see note). Tenderloin should be carefully rolled in phyllo, ham, and mushrooms. Use plastic wrap to help tighten the roll. Rewrap the beef in plastic wrap once it has been completely rolled up, twisting the ends to make the roll very tight. Return to refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Dust board or countertop lightly with flour. Puff pastry should be spread out on a surface and rolled into a rectangle at least 4 inches wider than the beef roll on its shorter side using a rolling pin. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• With the foie gras side facing up, unwrap the beef roll and place it along the very bottom edge of the puff pastry. Just above the beef roll, brush 6 inches of puff pastry with beaten egg. Roll the beef carefully in the puff pastry until it is completely encased. The puff pastry seam should meet on the bottom, with the foie gras-side facing up once more. Trim pastry with a sharp knife. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Fold the puff pastry edges that protrude from the beef roll’s ends inward before folding the top flaps down. Trim off the bottom flaps carefully. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Fold up the end flaps to completely seal the beef roll after turning it over so that the bottom is facing up. Roll beef back right-side up. Place on a plate, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• Pre-heat the oven to 425°F (218°C) and position the oven rack in the center. Place Wellington on a baking sheet lined with foil and cover with a beaten egg glaze. Create a pretty pattern in the pastry by scoring it with a sharp paring knife. Sprinkle liberally with coarse sea salt. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and the internal temperature of the roast reaches 110°F (43°C) for rare or 120°F (49°C) for medium-rare. Remove from oven and allow to rest for ten minutes. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .
• To remove Wellington from the foil, use a thin metal spatula. Then, carefully transfer to a carving board. Slice off the ends with a sharp knife. Wellington should be carved, then the cut surfaces should be covered in chives and more coarse salt. Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga .

Special Equipment

A center-cut beef tenderloin is also known as a Châteubriand. Use a premium all-butter puff pastry, such as Dufour, for the best results. Alternatively, make your own using this recipe. Fresh foie gras can be substituted with foie gras pâté. If using pâté, skip step 7. In place of the sliced fresh foie gras in step 9, spread foie gras pâté on top of the tenderloin.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
1029	Calories
75g	Fat
48g	Carbs
34g	Protein

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6 to 8
Amount per serving
Calories	1029
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 75g	96%
Saturated Fat 26g	129%
Cholesterol 166mg	55%
Sodium 1182mg	51%
Total Carbohydrate 48g	17%
Dietary Fiber 3g	12%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 34g
Vitamin C 7mg	35%
Calcium 59mg	5%
Iron 7mg	38%
Potassium 800mg	17%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

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EATING BEEF WELLINGTON FOR THE FIRST TIME!