Go to the Recipe: Beef Wellington Level 1; The Doughboy
Wait - how long do you let the tenderloin rest after the sous vide bath? Are we talking minutes or hours? Can we sous vide it, put it in the fridge, make up the pastry parcel an hour or two later, put that back in the fridge and then bake it off the next day to serve? This is my traditional course for the xmas family dinner; normally I'd wrap in one or two sheets of filo pastry before the puff pastry to help contain the juices, but anything that helps make it easier and better is good for me
90 min
I've been waiting for you guys to do a Beef Wellington recipe for so long! Can't wait to make this!
Lattice cutter:
https://www.amazon.com/Lattice-Cutter-Roller-Pie-Crust/dp/B01MRKCUME/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1544817687&sr=8-4&keywords=Lattice+pastry+cutter
In the "Before We Begin" section: "Note that the loin should be cooked right before you assemble the dish. You want the beef to be served hot; with our sous vide hack, the welly won’t be in the oven long enough to heat through if you start with a cold piece of meat.
As @BostonBestEats points out, the recipe notes that you should go straight from SV to assembly. In general though, proteins cooked sous vide do not need to 'rest' after cooking like with traditional cooking methods, because the SV approach means they are already at an even temperature.
Looks amazing! I'm definitely making it - though I'm thinking I'll sub your mushrooms and use your chicken liver pate. Now I have an excuse to buy yet another gadget on amazon.
With SV as part of the method here, I wonder what other cuts might be fun experimenting with, say a chuck roll or even flank with chorizo.
Brilliant! How much food can I possibly cook and eat over the Holidays??? I'm definitely making this, but it'll have to wait for 2019.
I'm thinking of trying this with turkey thighs
Did you try puff pastry or phyllo dough? Why didn’t they work? Looks delicious!
I 'm concerned that 360 F for 20 minutes would raise the cook temp on the beef from Med Rare to Med Well? Any thoughts our comments.
Can someone recommend a non-pork-sourced substitute for the prosciutto?
In your Beef Tenderloin of a few years ago, which was MARVELOUS, the recipe called for Sous Vide of the meat first, sear when the meat is done to your liking. This resulted in the best beef tenderloin we have ever eaten. Why not use this method with the meat?
Lamb prosciutto. I actually prefer it to pork prosciutto. It is a bit harder to find, but it is generally available.
I suppose you can par freeze it?
It will be okay. You can also cook the meat and chill it, then assemble your Wellington and leave it in the fridge overnight. Take it out, egg wash it and put it in the oven at 450F for 20 mins. Internal temp will be about 112F ish which is hot enough to serve. So all the prep is done before the big day work allowing you to focus on the pre-dinner drinks. I did this last Christmas and it worked really well, so much so that it’s on the Christmas menu for this year
But based on the BostonBestEats quoted comment, I believe that the beef should be allowed to cool down before you bake it. Partly in order to not have it overcook, but I would also assume that it needs to rest and cool down a bit before you wrap it as sous vided meat (in my experience) is still pretty juicy when you pull it out. They also write that the meat goes in the SV first, and they use pastry straight from the can, I don't think it should be interpreted as "straight from SV into wrapping".
If it's anything like a conventional Wellington, it should be possible to store the wrapped Welly in the fridge for up to a day or so if properly wrapped. I've only had a few tries at a traditional Wellington though, but going on a bunch of different recipes this seems to be the trend.
Wow! This is on my list to try. I LOVE my Joule!
I thought Beef Wellington was covered in Pate? Is that a different dish or do people interchange pate and the Duxelles regularly?
I'm guessing there are 2 advantages of a pre-sear over a post-sear in this case:
1) Searing your meat when it is cold minimizes the chance of cooking the interior
2) The seared meat will add flavor to the sous vide bag (and any sauce you eventually make from the bag juices)
A post-sear is good for giving a fresh crust to a steak, but that is not important here since the surface of the meat is inside the pastry etc.
I am making this for 10 people so will have ~4-5lb tenderloin, will the joule cook time be the same?
Should be! Assuming the thickness of your loin is similar to the one in the recipe, the length would not effect cooking time. Good luck! Would love to see a picture on the forum, of the finished project. :-)
Constantly stir the duxelles for an hour? Really seems like a long time ,my arms are tired just thinking about it.
@Donald Wilson it depends on who you ask. Some recipes call for a pâte, some do not. Those that do will argue between a chicken liver pâte and foie gras pâte. Feel free to tweak this to suit your own tastes.
it is covered in duxelle to absorb all the juice that comes out of the meat so it doesnt soak the pastry. Pate will not do the same thing, unfortunately.
Do you cool the tenderloin prior to wrapping it?
Joule guide for tenderloin says to cook for 2hrs minimum. Will 90 min be enough for this? I know it's not in oven long enough to cook any more.
No, wrap it immediately after sous vide or the oven won't warm the meat up enough to eat.
Should be determined by how think the meat is. Count on about 1 hour per inch thickness.
If you don't sweat out most of the moisture, you will get a soggy crust.
I'm confused by the physics on this one: in the conventional recipe (e.g. Gordon Ramsay) the Wellington is cooked from fridge temperature at 200°C for 15-20 minutes then rested for 10 mins. How is possible that the beef isn't overcooked here?
The residual heat from the meat won't negatively affect the inner layers of the dough?
Gordon's recipe is actually 200F x 35 min after only 5 minutes in the fridge to firm up the outside. If you put it in the fridge the day before you should let it warm up before cooking it at that temp or the inside will not reach serving temperature.
I don't think it would have much effect.
Ramsay's Masterclass recipe says "Place in the center of the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes,
until golden brown. Remove and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing and serving." The video says 380F and the PDF book that accompanies the masterclass says 425F
anyone have any thoughts on subbing in the sous vide recipe for a chuck roast?
10 grams of Thyme is a lot. Is this supposed to be 1 gram? I used a stripper to get the leaves off of the thyme which with stems, weighed 10 grams. After not even a gram.
Made this for Xmas. Everything worked as described and it is a picture book example of why Sous Vide is great, but: (1) mushroom duxelles is a pain to make (constant stirring for 45 min) and has a strong taste that overpowers the meat, (2) Pillsbury Crescent Rolls dough is a bit sweet to my taste and (3) you run into issues if you take a larger size of tenderloin. Mine was like 2 Lbs and I needed to attach an additional 1/2 can of dough to make it all work. Happy I made it, looked beautiful, not sure I will again.
I made this today and was pleased with the taste. I made the mushroom duxelles a on the 21st and vaccum sealed it until today. I had 2lb of tenderloin and I trimmed it down to around 1.5lbs and 6 inches as the recipe called. Cooked for 2.5 hours @ 140°. I made this with caramelized carrots, beef demi glaze and horseradish cream from the site.
I made this yesterday. I chilled the finished tenderloins and mushrooms for 60 minutes outside in 35 degree weather, then assembled the prosciutto, mushrooms, and tenderloin, wrapped in saran, and back to the porch for another hour. Then I added the dough, re-wrapped it, and put it in the fridge for the night. On Christmas afternoon I took it out, placed the second layer of dough on it, applied the egg wash, and cooked it in a 425F oven. At 20 min I tented with aluminum foil and at 30 min it came out of the oven. Internal temp was 120. Taste was great although the mushroom paste was extremely rich.
This is *one* Wellington serving 4-5 right?, although on the pictures it looks two-portion sized?
This is similar to how I make my beef wellies. Except my recipe is half Cooks Illustrated half Gordon Ramsay. CI's duxelle's has a touch of heavy cream, and not blitzed to a paste (just right before it becomes a paste). But both ways only have a thin layer of duxelles surrounding the roast. I also tie the roast and let it "dry-age" in the fridge 24-48 hrs. That way it only meets the skillet for a few seconds. I think the sous vide stage is unnecessary and just adds more work. I bake it in a Dufour pastry at 450F, bottom rack, till thermometer reads 112F. The pastry is golden brown by the time the roast is rare.
I don't think they remove the leaves in this recipe. Pretty sure the 10 grams includes the stems. *see the pic in step 2 above.
I spread mine on a baking tray and put in a low oven (100C), stirring occasionally. Much less effort than standing over a spitting pot for an hour.
Puff pastry is the classic and it does work. However, as Julia Child pointed out many years ago, there is always an undercooked ring inside. Her solution was to use Brioche dough, similar idea to the Pillsbury crescent dough. I have used both puff pastry and Brioche dough and I think Julia was right, although puff pastry was acceptable. Never tried phyllo, but buttering and wrapping a bunch of layers around the meat seems like a more labor-intensive approach.
This was the X Mas centerpiece. I loved it: the mix of the salt and shallot in the mushrooms with the sweetness of the dough, and the tenderloin in the middle. It was a huge hit with everyone. Would totally make again, and might even try pate with the mushroom layer. This is fabulous.
I believe that a traditional Beef Wellington uses both pate and duxelles. The difference is that it uses pate (or foie) in place of the prosciutto they use in this recipe.
Good luck to do this with a full tenderloin
It looks simple and easy
It is just the opposite
Especially the last part with the doe
Stick to puff pastry wider longer easier then pilsnury
Can you elaborate on why it didn't turn out? I am curious where you felt it went wrong. #pilsnury
I think he used a full tenderloin. If that's the case the smaller pastry portion the bit recommends would not work.
Err on the side of caution and go longer. You can overcook via sous vide but you really have to work at it. It is possible to monitor meat being cooked in a water bath. One way is to place a resident probe in the meat and then the whole show in a thin bag and let the bag collapse around the meat and line. You can monitor the center temp as it cooks that way. Another, if you insist on vacuum sealing, is to use a closed cell foam tape stuck on the side of the bag. Stick a sous vide style probe ( a thin one ) right through the tape, bag and into the meat. Be careful and make sure you have the right kind of tape. Thermoworks sells a good one.
I'm surprised no one's made a mini waterproof BT thermometer that can be placed in a SV bag and sealed in with the meat. It would transmit to a smart phone.
Shouldn't with this method. This is a mildly deconstructed BW massaged to get the meat just right and minimize the vapor / fluid losses that make the pastry soggy. The meat is cooked SV with the pastry nowhere around it. Then wrapped in a mushroom thing I wouldn't call duxcells then sliced meat. All you need do at that point is cook the pastry shell as the meat is done. That cuts the cook time way down lessening the chances of water logging the pastry. Perhaps I missed it but mustard is usually used in this dish and really makes it pop.
Sounds like a better method. BW was a popular dish at a club I worked in the South of the Netherlands. The Chef there ( I was just a wine boy ) chopped the mushrooms after sweating them so they still had texture. He took 75 % out of the pan and then went to down sauteing the remaining 25% and adding Cognac to finish. Then he batched it all together. It wasn't a paste like this bit shows.
I made this for the family Christmas dinner in 2018 and it was fabulous and I got rave reviews from my family. This year it is my wife’s family turn. I will make two individual 3.5 lb tenderloins. I am practicing tomorrow on a pork tenderloin, which I am excited to try. I love pork tenderloin!
Hello, I'm thinking of doing this for Christmas dinner, but I have a gluten free diner. Do you think that the GF Cup 4 Cup Pie Crust mix would work well with this recipe?
https://www.cup4cup.com/products/pie-crust/
we haven't tested the pie dough with cup for cup yet. Sorry. No real insights on that one yet. Have you checked out our Guide to pie dough? We have an activity on ingredients that may help you. Please share if you make it, we would love to hear about it.
I agree, 10g of thyme is too much. I am going to use one-half tablespoon minced fresh thyme (1 gram).
Made two of these for New Year’s Eve and it was really spectacular. The tenderloin was melt-in-you-mouth tender. The duxelles are perfectly rich. That being said, I had a few struggles and a few adjustments I made from comments here, so I’ll try to give something for all the info I took away. I did not purée the duxelles completely, but left some bits. I used the drying method as suggested by Matthew and spread on a baking sheet in a low oven for an hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes. Also added some cognac to the duxelles- good choice. Also cooked the tenderloins 132 F for 2 hours and then let it hold in the Sous vide until I was ready, maybe 15 minutes. My struggles came with the dough. Everyone following this recipe should take into consideration the length of their loin and the limitations of the Pillsbury dough. Because of it’s perforations, you are limited in how much you can roll it to make it a little bigger in the event your tenderloin is pushing the limits of the dough. And then the lattice: I managed to find a lattice dough cutter at Hobby Lobby on NYE day. The secondary dough REALLY should go back in a freezer as suggested but time and space and perhaps enthusiasm to keep moving made this a lot trickier than what I watched in a video. Luckily I made two, so the second lattice went better than the first. I made a spicy mustard/horseradish cream in my siphon and when a tipsy guest took that siphon over it added delicious and messy drama! This was a very rewarding to make - thanks to a great recipe and lots of advice here.
Made Beef Wellington for the 1st time and I must say I’m quite proud of myself. Made a few mistakes along the way (not enough druxelles) but in my defence had to make two Wellington’s due to amount of guests. One of the biggest challenges for me was to find a puff pastry that actually used butter and not palm oil or shortening. Loved how the recipe was broke down - easy to follow. Made a green peppercorn sauce to accompany the dish, which I was told worked great. Will definitely try this one again.
