How to Cook Beef Wellington - Short Cooking Guide

Despite its exquisite look, Beef Wellington is a relatively easy dish to prepare. However, a lot of people feel threatened when they are thinking about how to cook this dish. Once you know the technique for cooking it, you can easily serve this dish on any occasion – if you can afford.

Beef Wellington makes use of beef tenderloin which is layered between a mushroom mixture known as Duxelles. It is then enclosed in a golden brown, flaky puff pastry before it is being baked in the oven. For extra special occasions and high end restaurants, Foie Gras and black truffles are smeared inside the meat before the dish is being baked in its pastry tomb.

It is for this reason that Beef Wellington has always been served in swanky dinner parties. Along with its fiddly puff pastry and ostentatiously expensive French ingredients, the dish calls for a special celebration in order to be prepared. Unless, of course, the cook is willing to substitute the expensive ingredients with cheaper alternatives; thus making the dish a sublime rendition.

Once Beef Wellington has been cooked to perfection, the dish will produce a mélange of texture and flavor. Hidden in its soft, crunchy, and puff pastry tomb is a tender and pink fillet. The diner would be surprised to find that the beef tenderloin has been cooked in a very way that has been able to retain the juice from the beef. As a result, the person eating the dish will savor the rich and enticing juices from the meat along with every bite.

It is believed that the history of Beef Wellington is harder to tackle than the actual way of cooking the dish. This can be due to the fact that there are several countries that claim to have originated the dish. In addition, it has a close resemblance to the filet de boeuf en croûte, another classical French dish. It was also said that the Duke of Wellington was uninterested in the different table pleasures. And the Beef Wellington was one of the very few dishes that were able to pique his appetite. This is why the dish was named after him.

Even before then, the style of cooking this popular dish has not changed. Beef Wellington is being baked in order to preserve the juicy and color of the meat. Its puff pastry serves as its protection from browning, thus making the insides of the tenderloin remain pink and juicy.

The only difference that can be pointed out is the way the dish is served. In its earliest form, Beef Wellington is cooked with Foie Gras and black truffles. It was also cooked as a whole tenderloin, enclosing the meat no matter how big it is. One good rationale why the dish has been altered can be due to the fact that many have chosen to become more practical. Instead of the expensive ingredients, many cooks make use of chicken liver paté and duxelles. Also, there are now individual Beef Wellington servings so that the diners can enjoy the dish according to the portion they prefer.

Despite the fact that there are now available pre-prepared, frozen puff pastry in the market. But this deprives the cook of the traditional and real manner of preparing the dish. However, there are many who are unable to achieve the same consistency as a freshly made puff pastry. This is why they resort to using the frozen version.

Nevertheless, the cheaper and easier methods can be used in order to create Beef Wellington. The trick is to be able to preserve the tenderness of the meat inside the pastry.