Most of a beef Wellington happens on the cutting board before the pastry ever comes out. The knife work is four jobs: a trimmed center-cut tenderloin of even thickness, mushrooms and shallots minced fine for the duxelles, prosciutto laid in a neat overlapping sheet, and, at the end, clean slices through the baked pastry with a serrated knife. Get those right and the oven has very little left to go wrong.
A Wellington looks like a feat of pastry. It is really a feat of preparation, which is good news for a Christmas cook: the duxelles can be made the day before, which leaves only the searing, wrapping and chilling for the day itself.
What goes inside
Wikipedia describes beef Wellington as a baked dish of beef fillet and duxelles wrapped in puff pastry. Some recipes add a layer of prosciutto, which helps keep the pastry from becoming soggy, and classical versions may use pâté instead of duxelles or crêpes instead of prosciutto. The dish is presumably named after the Duke of Wellington, but Wikipedia notes that the precise origin of the name is unclear.
From the center out, then: beef, a smear of mustard, duxelles, prosciutto, pastry.
The beef: an even center cut
Use the center cut of a beef tenderloin, the section that is the same thickness from end to end. A 2- to 2½-pound center cut serves six. If you bought a whole tenderloin, the center cut is the middle section once the thick butt end and the thin tail are cut away.
On the board, check three things:
- No silverskin. Any thin, shiny membrane left on top is chewy to eat. Slide a thin knife under it with the blade angled slightly up, and strip it off.
- No loose flaps. Trim anything that hangs off the side so the log is a clean cylinder.
- Even thickness. If one end is noticeably thinner, trim it square. A thin end cooks through long before the center.
Tie the beef with twine every inch and a half to hold its round shape, season it, and sear it hard on all sides in a very hot skillet. Let it cool, remove the twine, and brush it all over with Dijon mustard.
The duxelles: mince, then dry
Duxelles, in Wikipedia’s definition, is a mince of mushrooms, onions, herbs such as thyme or parsley, and black pepper, sautéed in butter and reduced to a paste. For a Wellington, it has to be dry and fine enough to spread like a pâté.
Mushrooms. About 1½ pounds of cremini mushrooms for a 2-pound roast. Wipe them clean, trim the stem ends, and slice them. Then gather the slices into a pile and rock a chef’s knife through them, again and again, until the pieces are smaller than a grain of rice. A food processor is faster: pulse in two or three batches so the bottom layer does not turn to paste. How to cut mushrooms covers the slicing that comes first.
Shallots and garlic. Two shallots and two cloves of garlic, minced fine. The cuts are in how to mince a shallot and how to mince garlic.
Thyme. Strip the leaves from four or five sprigs by pulling against the stem, then chop them.
This is the most board-heavy part of the recipe, a pile of mushrooms that seems far too large and will cook down to a fraction of itself. A 12 × 9 inch WONAMU. bamboo cutting board gives a batch of mushrooms room to be rocked through, and the perimeter juice groove holds the liquid they release.
Cook it dry. Melt butter in a wide skillet, soften the shallots and garlic, then add the mushrooms and thyme with salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated and the mixture pulls away from the pan as a dark, crumbly paste. That can take 15 to 20 minutes. Wet duxelles leaves water for the pastry to soak up; dry duxelles leaves none.
Spread it on a plate and let it cool completely. Made a day ahead, it goes into a covered container in the refrigerator.
The prosciutto sheet
Lay a large sheet of plastic wrap on the counter. Shingle 10 to 12 thin slices of prosciutto on it in two overlapping rows, forming a rectangle long enough to wrap the beef and wide enough to go all the way around it.
Spread the cooled duxelles over the prosciutto in an even layer, edge to edge, about a quarter inch thick. Set the beef along the near edge. Lift the plastic wrap and roll the prosciutto and duxelles around the beef into a tight log, then twist the ends of the wrap like a candy wrapper. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes so the log firms up.
Wrap and bake
Roll out puff pastry, unwrap the log onto it, and fold the pastry around it, trimming the excess so the seam overlaps by about an inch. Seal with beaten egg, set it seam side down, and chill again for 15 to 20 minutes.
Brush with egg wash and score the top lightly with the back of a knife in a crosshatch or diagonal pattern. Bake on a sheet pan at 425°F until the pastry is deep golden and a thermometer pushed into the center of the beef reads at least 145°F, the FDA’s safe minimum for beef roasts, followed by a rest of at least three minutes. In practice, rest it 10 minutes so the slices hold together.
Slicing the Wellington
Move the Wellington to a long carving board or serve it from its platter; it is longer than an everyday board. Then:
- Use a serrated knife, or a long carving knife that is very sharp. A plain dull edge crushes the pastry before it cuts it.
- Saw gently through the crust, then switch to one long, smooth stroke through the beef.
- Cut thick slices, about an inch to an inch and a half, so each one keeps its rings of pastry, prosciutto, duxelles and beef intact.
- Wipe the blade between slices so crumbs and duxelles do not drag across the next cut face.
- Trim the ends first. They are mostly pastry and are the cook’s to eat.
Lift each slice with a wide spatula onto warm plates. For the rest of the evening’s plan, from timing the oven to setting the table, see how to host Christmas dinner for the first time.
Leftovers go into the refrigerator within two hours, the FDA’s limit. Illinois Extension advises eating cooked leftovers within three to four days and reheating them to 165°F.
The short version
Use a trimmed center cut of even thickness, tied, seared and brushed with mustard. Mince the mushrooms, shallots and thyme fine, and cook the duxelles until the pan is dry.
Shingle prosciutto on plastic wrap, spread the duxelles, roll the beef in tight, and chill. Wrap in pastry, chill, bake to at least 145°F, rest 10 minutes, and slice an inch thick with a serrated knife.
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The WONAMU. bamboo cutting board — 12 × 9 inches, bamboo, with a perimeter juice groove and a cotton care cloth in the box — is available on Amazon.
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