Day 4: Beef Wellington

This day has finally come…I am still wondering why I did this to myself. I wanted to give myself a challenge, but after 4+ hours of cooking, I doubt I will be making this again any time soon, or at least not without help.

Today’s theme is in honor of my favorite chef, Gordon Ramsay. No introduction is needed – from his “colorful language,” to his rants and TV shows, I am in awe of how much this one man has accomplished. Beef wellington is one of the first dishes that comes to mind when I think of him, so it only made sense that I cook it. You can watch the TikTok (my first ever!) I posted as videographic evidence of me making it.

Rather than walking through the recipe itself, which can be found online, I thought I would make a list of things that I learned about making beef wellington.

Things I learned about making beef wellington:

  1. You will most likely have to ask the butcher for the specific cut of meat for beef wellington. I felt so self-conscious, going up to the meat section of the supermarket and I was not prepared for the amount of questions he asked, as necessary as they were. How much do you need? Does 1 pound work? Do you want choice or prime cut? Obviously, I successfully secured my package of meat, or there would be no blog post to write.
  2. Avoid moisture as much as possible. I tried to cook the duxelles as much as possible, but I guess it still had moisture because my beef wellington has a little bit of leakage which caused the puff pastry to be slightly soggy. Luckily, it wasn’t much moisture and the
  3. Give yourself plenty of time. I started cooking around 4:30 PM and did not start eating until around 8:30 PM. With the multiple components and the time spent letting the mushrooms cool down or letting the plastic wrapped puff pastry-covered beef set in the fridge, this is a time-consuming project. A YouTube video of Gordon Ramsay explaining how to make beef wellington is only 2 minutes long – very misleading.
  4. Take necessary actions to preserve the shape of the beef wellington. I was too lazy to do anything outside of wrapping the beef wellington tightly in plastic wrap, but I was also happy with the end product. If you’re wanting a more even log, experts recommend tying loops of string around the meat when searing and tightly wrapping the layers in stages.
  5. Apparently the red wine sauce needs 1 hour to simmer at one point (I probably should have read the recipe ahead of time…), and by that point I was 90% of the way done and very hungry, so I ended up making my own quick version of the red wine sauce.
  6. Beef wellington is DELICIOUS. I thought I was going to cry when I took my first bite. Granted, I was also emotional because I was so tired from all the standing and cooking, but wow did the flavor blow me away. The duxelle is not as mushroom-y as you might think and it combined so well with the buttery, flaky puff pastry and the tender beef. I finally understand what Gordon Ramsay meant by “melt in your mouth” texture. As much as I might be complaining about all the hard work that went into making this dish, I am so happy that I had the opportunity to cook and eat this culinary masterpiece.

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