I love it. The last time I made it I had 13 for dinner and they are still raving about it. I have only made it about four times, it is so delicious.

I love it and used to make it to for important events. Used a recipe I got from the City Tavern in Philadelphia.

I haven't tried it, but the ones I saw on the cruise ships look too rare for me.
Eileen

I love, love, love Beef Wellington. It's our traditional Christmas dinner. I've been making it for so many years (over 40) that I don't even remember what cookbook the recipe I use is from! But, it is a lot easier to make than it first appears. The most tedious part is that after you've finely minced a whole pound of mushrooms, you need to extract the juice from them. This involves pressing them between about four layers of paper towels to get the moisture out. You can only do a cupful or so at a time, and you'll go through a LOT of paper towels, and you'll make a mess...

But, the "filling" (which has the mushrooms along with finely minced ham, liver pate, green onion, Madeira wine, egg yolk, dried Tarragon) can be made up to a day ahead and then kept, covered, in the fridge. I highly recommend that you do this!

And, Eileen, it isn't difficult at all to get the "right degree of doneness." I always start out with about a 3-pound beef tenderloin (it will be 8" to 10" long), then cut it into 1/2-inch slices. Take a double thickness of cheesecloth and line the bottom of a roasting pan with it, and brush it with cooking oil. Make sure you have a large enough piece of cheese cloth so that you can eventually wrap up the whole "Wellington" in it.

Now, getting back to the meat -- Spread a couple of tablespoons of filling onto one side of the first slice, and set it onto the oiled cheesecloth. Then the same thing is done to the next slice, and the "clean" side of it is placed against the filling on the first slice. You keep going like this until you've totally reformed the tenderloin. You may have filling left over -- that's okay, cuz you'll use it a little later.

Anyway, once you have that process completed, tie some cooking string/twine around the tenderloin to hold it together. Then, wrap the rest of the cheesecloth around the tenderlon and use more string to hold the shape. (Basically, you just want the slices to "stand upright" and not just fall all over the place.)

At this point, you can just cover it, and stick it in the fridge! What I mean is, up to this point can be done a day ahead, so you have less to do on "big dinner night."

Okay, so now you're going to cook the tenderloin and create a Beef Wellington.

You preroast the meat in the upper third of a 425-degree oven. How long depends on how well done you want it. I usually preroast it for about 30 minutes.

Then, you take it out of the oven and after you've removed the string, cheesecloth, and inside string, you transfer it onto a puff pastry sheet (that you've rolled out a bit). Now you can take any leftover filling, and spread it on the top of the entire thing. Take a second puff pastry sheet (also rolled out a bit) and cover the top of the tenderloin. That top sheet will drape down covering the sides and ends. Tuck the edges of the top sheet under the bottom, and crimp them to keep them together. You can trim off any excess, and cut it into whatever shapes float your boat, and put them on the top. Glaze the top with one egg, gently beaten, into which you've beaten one tsp of water.

Now, you stick it back into the oven for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the pasty is a nice golden brown.

You can also do individual Wellingtons, which works well if some of your folks like their filet mignon rare, others like it medium, and others like it well done. You just preroast some of it for a longer period of time to get it more "done." Take two slices of meat with filling between them (or three if your crowd has big eaters), and put them on pieces of puff pastry sheet that will be the right size for that portion. Cover, do the egg wash, and then the final roasting period.

Anyway, if anyone wants the recipe, just e-mail me through my page and I'll e-mail it to you as an Adobe document.

I like to eat Beef wellington. DH and his family used to go out to one restaurant on Holidays for family dinners and he loved their BW. I've tried to make it at home but I just don't have the knack. I'm not good with pastries, crepes and yeast doughs. They don't like me but I like to eat them!

Why do you have to extract the juice from the mushrooms? Does part of the flavor go out with the juice?

This sounds as labor intensive as making tamales.
I tell my family and friends that making tamales is a labor of love.

never had it but i've always thought it looked good!

I have never had it, but it sounds yummie.

I've never had it either

Here you go!

{{gwi:1790329}}

Never had it.

Love it but only order it out. If I ever had one like Glenda's picture, I think I'd cry from sheer joy!

Not a fan here, I don't care for the duxelle,

First time I ever had beef wellington was a very romantic dinner with my new husband.

We had tickets to see John Denver in concert.

Before the concert, he had reservations at a restaurant on top floor of hotel, that was surrounded by windows and you had an awesome view of the city.

Strolling violinist played and presented each female with a long stem rose.

Love it!

I do like it but I've gotten very lazy about making it. I usually butterfly my tenderloin, spread it with mushrooms and onions chopped real fine and sauteed' in butter, roll it up, tie it, roast it and serve with a Madeira sauce. Very simple and very good and less calories....but who's counting.

Like Lynn D I don't like the duxelle. I only like the flavor of mushrooms. The texture turns me off unless they are raw in salads or very crispy on pizza.

I also love meat. Good meat I don't want sauced or spiced up. Same with steak. Can't stand a good steak "ruined " with gravy just because it has an artsy fartsy name. LOL

Beef wellington "floats my boat" and I call it fine dining.

I do like it, but I am picky about it. I like the pastry to be crisp and cooked through, and I prefer if it doesn't have liver pate included in the duxelle layer.

Never made it at home, though. Looks good!

Dances.

In the olden days I made the puff pastry myself from Julia child's cookbook. There were 4 or 6 "turns" you had to make. Gently rub it and then turn to the other side and let it rest. It was very hard to tell how well cooked the meat got when you added the puff pastry but there were lessons learned and I made them individually and sometimes the guests had to swap. One time I was making it and I received a crate of live lobsters from a friend. That night we could have gotten gout as everyone got an individual Beef Wellington and a lobster.
Tonight I had a chicken sandwich on the run for dinner. So, what's for dinner is now an embarrasing question.