Beef Wellington
Steak dish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beef Wellington is a baked dish made out of beef tenderloin and duxelles wrapped in shortcrust pastry. Some recipes include wrapping the contents in prosciutto, or dry-cured ham, which helps retain moisture while preventing the pastry from becoming soggy; use of puff pastry;[1] or coating the beef in mustard. Classical recipes may include pâté.[2]
A beef Wellington sliced open | |
| Course | Main |
|---|---|
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Beef, shortcrust pastry, duxelles |
A whole tenderloin may be wrapped and baked, and then sliced for serving, or the tenderloin may be sliced into individual portions before wrapping and baking.[3]
Naming
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.[4]
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".[5]
Early sources
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.[6]
There is an 1899 reference in a menu from the Hamburg-America line.[7] The earliest US attestation is in 1899[8]; 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.[9][10]
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".[11]
Variations
In the Food Network show Good Eats, Alton Brown discusses a variant using the cheaper pork tenderloin instead of beef.[12] 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.[13][14]
See also
.svg){kind=small}
- Shooter's sandwich
- List of beef dishes
- List of steak dishes
- Leongatha mushroom murders (2023) involved beef Wellingtons containing death cap mushrooms