Classic Beef Wellington Recipe
Adapted from "Beef: And Other Bovine Matters" by John Torode
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Many people have only experienced an entirely forgettable beef Wellington at a wedding or any variety of stuffy banquet dinner. With layers of pâté, mushroom duxelles, sometimes prosciutto, and puff pastry wrapped around a tenderloin, beef Wellington can be a meat marriage made in either heaven or hell. This recipe is the heavenly version.
This recipe was featured as part of our Last Kodachrome Christmas menu.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms (about 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1 (2- to 3-pound) center-cut beef tenderloin roast, trimmed
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 medium shallots, finely chopped
- 2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 6 ounces chicken or duck liver pâté, such as our Chicken Liver–Port Pâté, at room temperature
- 6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
- 1 (14- to 16-ounce) package all-butter puff pastry, thawed in the refrigerator if frozen
- All-purpose flour, for dusting
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the porcinis in a small heatproof bowl and pour in the boiling water. Let sit until completely softened, about 30 minutes. Using a fork, transfer the porcinis to a cutting board (be careful not to disturb the gritty sediment at the bottom of the bowl). Finely chop the mushrooms and set them aside. Slowly pour the soaking liquid into a small bowl, leaving the sediment behind; set the liquid aside and discard the sediment.
- Season the beef all over with salt and pepper. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until foaming. Place the roast in the pan and brown it all over, taking care not to burn the butter, about 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the roast to a plate to cool.
- Melt the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons butter in a separate medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 1 minute. Add the reserved porcinis, the garlic, the reserved porcini liquid, and the cremini mushrooms and stir to combine. Increase the heat to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushroom mixture has released most of its moisture and appears dry, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add the thyme, and stir to combine. Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
- When the mushroom mixture has cooled, place the pâté in a medium bowl and beat with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the mushroom mixture and stir to evenly combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Using a long metal spatula, spread half of the mushroom mixture evenly over one side of the beef roast. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap, slightly larger than the roast, horizontally on the work surface. Vertically arrange half of the prosciutto, one piece slightly overlapping the next, along the length of the plastic wrap (it should be about the same size as the roast).
Place the roast mushroom-side down on the prosciutto. 
Spread the remaining mushroom mixture over the roast. 
Lay the rest of the prosciutto slices, in the same manner as before, over the mushroom mixture. 
Fold up the edges of the plastic wrap and use another piece of plastic to enclose the entire roast; refrigerate. 
- Heat the oven to 425°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Cut off about one-third of the puff pastry from the sheet and roll it out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle 1/8 inch thick and at least 1 inch larger than the base of the roast. Transfer to a baking sheet. Prick well with a fork all over and bake until brown and crisp, about 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the pastry to a cutting board to cool, then trim it to the size of the roast. Return the pastry to the baking sheet; set aside.
- Remove the roast from the refrigerator. Remove and discard the plastic wrap. Brush the roast all over with the beaten egg; reserve the remaining egg.
- Roll out the remaining puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 14 inches. Place the roast on top of the cooked pastry base.
Lay the rolled-out pastry over the roast. 
Use a spatula to lift up the pastry base, then tuck the sides of the uncooked pastry underneath the cooked pastry to seal the roast. 
Brush the pastry all over with the reserved egg. 
Roast for 20 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 400°F and continue to roast for 25 minutes more for rare to medium-rare beef, 30 to 35 minutes for medium. Remove the Wellington from the oven and let it stand for about 10 minutes before slicing.
Am going to try this next weekend for a dinner party in June. Doesn't really go w/ a June dinner, but we will lighten the load w/ a good salad and veggies. Was thinking of omitting the pate as well and perhaps making homemade ricotta to use as the pate. Thank you for all comments. Any additional comments are most certainly welcome on how to lighten this up for a summer dish.
Blind baking the bottom crust is brilliant. I'm going to try with lamb as well.
Hi MeMeMe,
I made the Beef Wellington for Christmas Dinner. Since I was arriving on Christmas Eve, I asked my mom to do the shopping for me. Of course she bought phyllo dough instead of puff pastry, and we didn't have any liver. Well, I used the phyllo and it worked beautifully. Instead of the liver, I added some ricotta cheese that my mom had in the fridge to help stiffen the mushroom duxelle, about 1/4 cup of so. Add a little at a time. You could also use sour cream or creme fraiche, or another cheese like ricotta (goat) or an egg would bind it too. It worked beautifully - less rich, of course, but it's a rich dish to begin with so the lighter duxelle was refreshing. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Jill (Senior Food Editor, CHOW.com)
Can someone tell me how it works if you don't include the pate? Does it get watery?
Please fix the printing view, pretty please! It prints html for the picture over the instructions. It looks that way on-screen as well, so it's not the printer. Tx
Okay - so I adapted this recipe from an epicurious recipe about 5 years ago. I've only made it a few times (once a year at Christmas, excluding last year) but it always turned out really well. And forgive me if some of the directions are a little hazy - I'm not good at writing recipes and I'm not big on measuring.
As for the mushy pastry issue, I do what the Chow recipe suggests (a lot of the recipe seems similar)- bake the bottom piece of puff first and use that as a cooking tray for the meat. Then wrap the rest of the raw pastry around it and bake.
Ingredients:
2lbs beef tenderloin
1/2 pound mushrooms of choice (I did a combo of cremini and white button)
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 small shallot, chopped
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 large egg
1 puff pastry package, thawed
5-6 oz. Gorgonzola or your favorite blue cheese
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Pat tenderloin dry adn season with salt and pepper. Sear in a little bit of butter on the stove for about 5-6 minutes, remove to a plate and chill for about an hour
Thinly slice mushrooms and cook with butter, shallot, garlic, salt and pepper to taste over medium heat - stirring until lightly browned. Transfer to a bowl to cool completely. Once cooled, mix in the cheese.
Beat the egg in a small bowl.
Roll out pastry dough. Prepare bottom piece as in Step 5 above.
To put the mushroom/cheese filling in, I work with the raw dough and spoon all the mixture into the middle adn then kind of work upside down, placing the tenderloin ontop of the mixture and wrapping the dough around and then flip the entire thing over onto the cooked piece of dough (sorry, this is tough to explain). Tuck the sides of the raw dough underneath the cooked piece. Brush over all of it with the egg wash adn press the pastry around the tenderloin to enclose completely. Chill in the fridge for an hour and then bake until it reaches an internal temp of 125 (about 35-45 min).
Oh geez, just saw these posts. I have the recipe at home. Will try and remember to put it on here. qtprof - it may be heretical, but I just don't like pate either.
Momnivore: can you share your blue cheese recipe? I know I'll sound like a Philistine when I say this, but I'm not crazy about liver and pate doesn't do it for me. Thanks in advance!
to Ms. 'momnivore' about this Wellington recipe - would you care to " Hack " this so as to post your added suggestions to prevent a mushy pastry ? Thanx again .
thanks for this great tip , 'momnivore' -would U please share detail on exactly how U make bake th pastry in advance & then how U put it together for saving - look forward to reading it , if you would post it . great user name too ; I'm jealous.
@momnivore. I believe the reason for the prosciutto is so the pastry pase doesn't become soggy.
Of course --you have to have Yorkshire Pudding along with the beef. I'm thinking of using this recipe for New Years Eve. I'll post my results.
I've made this but without the prosciutto and with blue cheese instead of pate and it is heavenly. I like baking the pastry base in advance b/c otherwise its just a soggy mess.
A meticulously described recipe, result looks delicious. (Even if it didn't spell out the classic difficulty of cooking dissimilar foods, meat inside pastry, so they're done simultaneously; or how factors like the wrong starting temperature inside the meat can sabotage this. Even if it didn't mention what's in many readers' minds above a certain age, which is that Beef Wellington is roughly as "classic" as Jimmy Carter and is the dish, popularized during his presidency, that notoriously symbolizes overdone ostentation in 1970s US cooking and culture. I may try cooking it!)
this looks goooood. And healthy.
No comments? Anybody tried this badboy out yet?