Beef Wellington

Prep 4 hrs 30 mins

Cook 1 hr 20 mins

Ingredients

900 g center-cut beef tenderloin

Salt and pepper

Canola oil

Beef tallow

600 g cremini mushrooms

200 g shallots

8 - 10 sprigs thyme

4 - 5 sprigs oregano

100 g Madeira

32 thin slices lardo or Prosciutto

25 g Dijon mustard

2 sheets puff pastry (400g)

All-purpose flour

1 large egg, beaten

4 sprigs rosemary

Steps

Prepare the beef: Trim and season with 1% of its weight in salt. Wrap the meat tightly in plastic wrap, package for sous vide, cook at 130 °F (55 °C) for 3 hours, and then refrigerate until cold (at least 30 minutes). Shallow-fry in an 80:20 mixture of oil and tallow at 400 °F (205 °C) for 1 to 2 minutes to develop a medium-brown crust. Blot off excess oil, and then chill and refrigerate until needed.

Prepare the duxelles: Finely chop the mushrooms and shallots. Cook the mushroom and shallots together in tallow, oil, or butter with thyme and oregano over medium-low heat until the mixture looks dry, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Deglaze with Madeira (optionally, flame off alcohol) and continue cooking until mixture is dry.

Prepare the cured meat wrapper: Lay out the slices of lardo on nonstick parchment set on two overlapping sheets of plastic wrap. Work left to right and then bottom to top, and overlap each slice so they'll hold together as a solid sheet that’s the same width as the meat.

Add the duxelles: Spread the duxelles over the cured meat sheet using an offset spatula to make an even layer about ¼ inch (6mm) thick. Leave about an inch of the cured meat uncovered at the top of the sheet so that it can close the wrapping.

Wrap the beef: Coat the beef tenderloin with pepper and a thin layer of mustard, and then place it onto the duxelles about one-third of the way up. Use the plastic wrap to roll things up.

Wrap in puff pastry: Roll puff pastry on a floured counter a few inches wider than the meat roll and long enough to wrap around the meat roll. Brush the sheet with egg wash, then wrap the pastry tightly around the meat roll. Pinch the ends closed and trim as necessary. Egg wash the surface and cover with the puff pastry lattice (optional). Make a hole for a Combustion Predictive Thermometer (optional) and wiggle the probe to make the hole a bit oversized. (It will shrink during freezing!) Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to cook and serve. (Wellington can be frozen for months before baking.)

Preheat Oven: to 450 °F (230 °C).

Bake Wellington: Brush with egg wash and add rosemary sprigs to the lattice windows if you want. Reinsert the Predictive Thermometer into the hole and then bake until the crust is dark golden brown and the surface sensor just beneath the crust has reached 190 °F (88 °C), which means the crust has cooked through, about 40 minutes. (Rotate the Wellington as needed for even browning and reduce the oven temperature to 350 °F (175 °C) if the crust is starting to look too dark too quickly.)

Finish heating beef: Once the crust is fully baked, crack the oven door and reduce the oven temperature as low as the oven goes, at least below 200 °F (93 °C), and ideally close to 150 °F (65 °C). Let the meat continue to heat through until the core is at least 105 °F (40 °C), which will take another 40 minutes. Use advanced mode on the Predictive Thermometer to see the temperatures from all 8 sensors to get a sense of the different temps inside the Wellington. Don't let the surface of the meat exceed 120 °F (49 °C) during this step, as it will continue to heat to about 130 °F (55° C) while the Wellington rests before slicing.

Slice & serve the beef Wellington!

Notes

2-stage bake from frozen: Keeps meat from overcooking while the pastry fully bakes and turns golden brown. Reducing oven temperature as low as it goes after cooking the crust brings the meat back up to temp while preventing the crust from browning. If using a Combustion Predictive Thermometer, track the layers to the following doneness temps: Crust: 200 °F (93 °C) Duxelles: 166 °F (74 °C) Beef surface: 120 °F (49 °C) Beef core 105 °F (40 °C) Sous vide = perfect meat and crisp crust: Cooking sous vide controls the doneness of the beef to a perfect medium rare. Collected juices in the bag can be used for a sauce and won’t sog out the crust as they would if the beef was cooked in pastry from raw. Shallow fry for better sear: Shallow frying takes a lot less oil than deep frying and still sears faster and more evenly than pan frying. Duxelles absorb juices: Cooking all of the liquid out of the mushrooms before using them to coat the beef means their sponge-like texture is ready to absorb any errant juices. Lardo > prosciutto: Essentially pure bacon fat, lardo is a perfect waterproof layer to put between the pastry and everything else.