Beef Wellington .. fillet is so expensive !

[allnewname]

We’ve decided on Beef Wellington this year but where can I find reasonably priced fillet beef and if not fillet what’s the next best thing? Can anyone advise?

Donald Russell butchers

You can’t do wellington without fillet. Yes it’s expensive.

Depending on how many people I
You are feeding, I would consider making individual wellingtons. Easy to make and you can get away with a smaller steak.

I've made wellington using pork fillet. It was really nice but maybe not special enough for Christmas

Mmm individuals … worth thinking about. And will look at Donald Russell, thank you.

If you’re near a Booths their fillet is lovely and comparatively reasonable.

Funnily enough was having this conversation at the butcher’s this morning. Beef is apparently shooting up in price atm.

we’re lucky to have a local butcher. It’s more expensive and less convenient than just chucking supermarket meat in the trolley on the way around. But the quality is soooo much better (I end up buying fewer chicken breasts for example, as they don’t shrink when you cook them (water loss). I’d def try to find a decent local butcher if you can. Appreciate not always an option.

Fillet is expensive.

venison is an option
or salmon wellington works well too.

Beef Wellington isn’t a dish you can compromise on. Accept it’s costing or re group and plan again

I buy it from Lidl, works well. Have you made it before from scratch? Took me a couple of attempts to get it right

Cash and carry!

I have only made Beef Wellington once as a Xmas treat for my mum and son. Nearly keeled over in Waitrose at the cost of the fillet steak. They said it was lovely. Good!

I made Turkey wellington once, it was delicious. The stuffing made it- I think it was a Gary Rhodes recipe. Cheaper and a bit more festive? Not a beef welly though!

I think if cost is an issue do something else.

If the Wellington is a stretch it will never be good enough to justify it.

Individual ones with grass fed fillet steaks from Lidl. They’re superb and very reasonably priced.

Does anyone have a recipe for individual ones? Sounds a good compromise.

If you have access to a Costco they do a superb frozen one (takes a long time to defrost so factor that in!). We had it for Boxing Day last year and everyone loved it.

It looking for recipes I used Gordon Ramsey’s and it was lovely.

Venison is a lot cheaper especially if you are able to buy direct from someone doing forestry management rather than a butcher.

I used tgat one for my large wellington. Si it works for small ones? I didn't know if the meat to pastry ratio made a difference.

I tweaked the recipe and did it by eye but we love pastry so having excess wasn’t a problem!

This is the recipe I use:

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/french/mini-boeufs-en-croute

That looks gorgeous!

I watched a Jamie Oliver programme which was very careful about the angles it was shown at, the duxelles looked very wet and the pastry was rather pale. Although I'm a pretty good cook I wouldn't risk making one at home.

It is actually really easy to do - and you can prepare most of it in advance - and of course, you’re using bought pastry! The duxelles does need to be really dry though.

I’ve ordered from Sainsburys £65 for approx 1 kilo. There are only 2 per cow and it’s the premium cut. Of course it will be expensive.