Question on Beef Wellington

Alexandra said:

Hi All-

I love to make Beef Wellington for special dinners but hate the bottom
of the pastry crust getting soggy from the meat juices. I make it both
with the whole tenderloin roast and with individual filets. Ive tried
lots of things including letting the meat rest after searing it- and
patting it dry with paper towels before putting it in the pastry. Is
there a solution or am I just stuck with soggy pastry?

You can minimize it by egg washing the inside of the pastry before
assembly, but it's the juices that the meat surrenders that creates the
issue. The longer you cook it - the more cooked the meat gets - the more
juices the meat will purge - both fats and water-based liquids. It also
depends on what kind of pastry you're using. Puff pastry, egg washed,
will absorb less than a piecrust-style pastry.

One technique we used in my restaurants was to pop the individual
Wellingtons into our freezer for a couple hours before cooking. That
way, we could crank the oven to get a good puff from the pastry and
still not overcook the meat.

Pastorio

"Alexandra" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Hi All-

I love to make Beef Wellington for special dinners but hate the bottom
of the pastry crust getting soggy from the meat juices. I make it both
with the whole tenderloin roast and with individual filets. Ive tried
lots of things including letting the meat rest after searing it- and
patting it dry with paper towels before putting it in the pastry. Is
there a solution or am I just stuck with soggy pastry?

Thanks!

Alex

The following works for me - no guarantees, given variations in individual
technique and all.

1) wash the crust with egg white on the side going towards the meat just
before folding and sealing, as well as on the outside after folding. It
seems that the initial high temp (425 F for about 20 minutes) "sets" the egg
white wash and helps isolate the crust form the juice.

2) prepare the meat before wrapping, to rare-medium rare in a heavy iron (my
Crueset iron is not heavy enough, BTW) skillet/pan, starting with a bit of
olive oil in the skillet/pan, and heat the empty skillet/pan to where the
oil is "just past thin" and thinking about really smoking, and then put the
meat in that very hot skillet for maybe three-four minutes first side and
then turn it on each side (edges, too) for a couple minutes each. You can
tell how long by looking and comparing to the first side.
Cool before wrapping in dough.

3) and thinking about what else I do, I think it helps if you bake it on a
rack or perforated sheet, and let it "set" on a rack. (Any moisture leaving
the meat is evaporated before it can get thru the bottom pastry crust.)

Thank you! I was doing an egg wash on the outside but hadnt thought of
doing it on the inside. Im using puff pastry and we like the meat
medium rare.
If I put them in the freezer for a couple of hours before cooking, what
temp and time do you recommend cooking them?

Alexandra said:

Thank you! I was doing an egg wash on the outside but hadnt thought of
doing it on the inside. Im using puff pastry and we like the meat
medium rare.
If I put them in the freezer for a couple of hours before cooking, what
temp and time do you recommend cooking them?

I use a square piece of puff pastry and set the meat (and other fixin's)
in the middle of the pastry and pull the points up to make a sorta
flower shape. I leave a tiny opening right on top in the middle. That's
where I stick the thermometer. No guessing.

I cook Wellingtons at 450°F in a conventional oven and 400°F in a
convection oven. For medium-rare, you need to undercook it significantly
because of the residual heat in the whole little package. I pull MR at
115°F and give it about 10 minutes, assuming a 6-8 ounce filet, a good
hunk of pate and a whole mushroom cap inside there. Gets up to about
130°F in the center. Doesn't really matter what sort of sheet you cook
it on as long as the oven is fully hot. Essentially the same as any
other wet-filled puff pastry. I've tried it on racks and screens to no
particular benefit. You want the water in the pastry to flash over to
steam and cause it to rise. A hot cooking sheet is better for that then
the air coming through the screen.

Plate it in a puddle of good demi-glace artistically dotted with Bearnaise.

Pastorio

"Alexandra" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Thank you! I was doing an egg wash on the outside but hadnt thought of
doing it on the inside. Im using puff pastry and we like the meat
medium rare.
If I put them in the freezer for a couple of hours before cooking, what
temp and time do you recommend cooking them?

by "them", do you mean the meat, the pastry, the meat and the pastry, or the
made-up wellington? And by freezer, do you mean the refrig or the freezer?

I seal it and then bake it without putting it back in the refrig.

425 for roughly 20 min, depends on the browning of the crust - then 300 for
a bit - how long depends on whether or not the meat was cooled to room or
comes from the frig.

sorry I can't be more specific.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Hi All-

I love to make Beef Wellington for special dinners but hate the bottom
of the pastry crust getting soggy from the meat juices. I make it both
with the whole tenderloin roast and with individual filets. Ive tried
lots of things including letting the meat rest after searing it- and
patting it dry with paper towels before putting it in the pastry. Is
there a solution or am I just stuck with soggy pastry?

Thanks!

Alex

For what it's worth, Michel Roux, in his cookbook, "Only The Best", has
a recipe for Beef Wellington. He wraps his roast in a layer of herby
crepes before wrapping in puff pastry (the herby crepes are just
ordinary crepes/British pancakes with chopped herbs added to the
batter). He says this keeps the puff pastry from getting soggy.

RobtE

Bob (this one) said:

I cook Wellingtons at 450°F in a conventional oven and 400°F in a
convection oven. For medium-rare, you need to undercook it significantly
because of the residual heat in the whole little package. I pull MR at
115°F and give it about 10 minutes, assuming a 6-8 ounce filet, a good
hunk of pate and a whole mushroom cap inside there. Gets up to about
130°F in the center.

How long if cooking in a microwave? Full power or, say, 60%?

Ducking and running,
Bob

"Alexandra" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi All-

I love to make Beef Wellington for special dinners but hate the bottom
of the pastry crust getting soggy from the meat juices. I make it both
with the whole tenderloin roast and with individual filets. Ive tried
lots of things including letting the meat rest after searing it- and
patting it dry with paper towels before putting it in the pastry. Is
there a solution or am I just stuck with soggy pastry?

Thanks!

Alex

Certainly when you first cut into the fillet the juices from the meat will
naturally moisten the bottom crust.

Last fall I made individual 12 individual ones with fillets. Due to time
constraints I made seared them in the morning and then refrigerated the fillets
for several hours. The later I encased them in pastry and once again
refrigerated them on the baking trays. Quite frankly I did not notice any
problem with soggy bottoms. Are you using a duxelles or a pate? If you used a
duxelles
do you cook it uniil it is quite dry?

Dimitri

"Robt E" <yahoo@robt_englund.co.uk> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Hi All-

I love to make Beef Wellington for special dinners but hate the bottom
of the pastry crust getting soggy from the meat juices. I make it both
with the whole tenderloin roast and with individual filets. Ive tried
lots of things including letting the meat rest after searing it- and
patting it dry with paper towels before putting it in the pastry. Is
there a solution or am I just stuck with soggy pastry?

Thanks!

Alex

For what it's worth, Michel Roux, in his cookbook, "Only The Best", has
a recipe for Beef Wellington. He wraps his roast in a layer of herby
crepes before wrapping in puff pastry (the herby crepes are just
ordinary crepes/British pancakes with chopped herbs added to the
batter). He says this keeps the puff pastry from getting soggy.

RobtE

This link to uktv food (BBC) has video footage to show you how it's done using
crepes.
http://www.uktvfood.co.uk/index.cfm/uktvfoodpreview/recipes.newrecipe/ID/516239.shtml
(sorry don't know how to make it shorter)
Hope this helps
Sarah

zxcvbob said:

Bob (this one) said:

I cook Wellingtons at 450°F in a conventional oven and 400°F in a
convection oven. For medium-rare, you need to undercook it
significantly because of the residual heat in the whole little
package. I pull MR at 115°F and give it about 10 minutes, assuming a
6-8 ounce filet, a good hunk of pate and a whole mushroom cap inside
there. Gets up to about 130°F in the center.

How long if cooking in a microwave? Full power or, say, 60%?

<LOL> Gotta try that next time...

No, seriously...

Pastorio

Quoted message said:

Ducking and running,
Bob