Beef Wellington
 Beef Wellington, sliced open | |
| Course | Main |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United Kingdom, England |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Beef, puff pastry, duxelles |
| Part of a series on |
| Steak |
|---|
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Beef Wellington is a baked dish made of beef fillet and duxelles wrapped in puff pastry.[1][2][3] Some recipes include wrapping the contents in prosciutto, or dry-cured ham,[1] which helps retain moisture while preventing the pastry from becoming soggy; coating the beef in mustard; or substituting shortcrust pastry for puff. Classical recipes may include pâté in place of duxelles, or use of crêpes in place of prosciutto.[1][3]
A whole fillet may be wrapped and baked, and then sliced for serving, or the fillet may be sliced into individual portions before wrapping and baking.[4]
Naming
[edit]The dish is presumably named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, but the precise origin of the name is unclear and the connection between them is unknown.[5]
Leah Hyslop observed that by the time Wellington became famous, meat baked in pastry was a well-established part of English cuisine, and that the dish's similarity to the French filet de bœuf en croûte (fillet of beef in pastry) might imply that "beef Wellington" was a "timely patriotic rebranding of a trendy continental dish".[6]
Early sources
[edit]There is a recipe for Filet à la Wellington in an Austrian cookbook of 1891 consisting of a tenderloin wrapped in pastry, with optional bacon but no mushrooms, and served with truffle sauce or pickles.[7]
There is an 1899 reference in a menu from the Hamburg-America line.[8] The earliest US attestation is in 1899[9]; it also appears in the Los Angeles Times of 1903. A 1910 Polish cookbook includes Polędwica wołowa à la Wellington 'beef fillet à la Wellington' including duxelles, and served with a truffle or Madeira sauce. The author claimed that she had received this recipe from the cook of the imperial court in Vienna.[10][11]
The 1923 edition of Le Répertoire de la Cuisine, a professional reference cookbook, mentions a "Wellington" recipe for beef: "Barded fillet browned in butter and in the oven, coated in poultry stuffing with dry duxelles added, placed in rolled-out puff pastry. Cooked in the oven. Garnished with peeled tomatoes, lettuce, Pommes château".[12]
Variations
[edit]In the Food Network show Good Eats, Alton Brown discusses a variant using the cheaper pork tenderloin instead of beef.[13] A common vegetarian variation of the dish, known as "beet Wellington", replaces the beef with beetroot and has been featured on food competition shows such as MasterChef Australia.[14][15]
See also
[edit]
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- Shooter's sandwich
- List of beef dishes
- List of steak dishes
- Leongatha mushroom murders (2023) involved beef Wellingtons containing death cap mushrooms
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 Blanc, Raymond. "Beef Wellington". Retrieved 25 January 2025.
- ↑ Oliver, Jamie. "Epic beef wellington recipe". Retrieved 25 January 2025.
- 1 2 Ramsay, Gordon. "Traditional Beef Wellington". Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- ↑ "Beef wellington". BBC Good Food. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
- ↑ Olver, Lynne. "Beef Wellington". The Food Timeline.
- ↑ Hyslop, Leah (21 August 2013). "Potted histories: Beef Wellington". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- ↑ Seleskowitz, Louise (1886). Wiener Kochbuch (in German) (5th ed.). Vienna: Lienhart. Recipe 508, p. 110.
- ↑ "First Class Menu, 10th Nov 1899, Hamburg-America line". menus.nypl.org. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
- ↑ "A Novel Menu Card". Scientific American. LXXXI (13): 202. 23 September 1899 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Ochorowicz-Monatowa, Marya (1910). Uniwersalna książka kucharska (in Polish). Lwów; Warszawa-Łódź: Księgarnia H. Altenberga; Ludwik Fiszer. pp. 52, 304.
- ↑ "Marya Ochorowicz-Monatowa "Uniwersalna książka kucharska"". Salon tradycji polskiej (in Polish). Muzeum Lwowa i Kresów. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019.
- ↑ Gringoire, Th.; Saulnier, L. (1923). Le Répertoire de la Cuisine. Internet Archive (3rd ed.). Maison Allard, London. p. 163.
- ↑ Brown, Alton (30 May 2015). "Tender is the Pork". Food Network. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
- ↑ "Vegan Beet Wellington". Gordon Ramsay Restaurants. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
- ↑ "Pressure Test: Flynn McGarry's Beet Wellington". IMDb. Retrieved 30 August 2024.