Individual beef wellingtons - give me your best tips

[thisoldcity]

This is my idea for something special for Christmas dinner that I can prep the previous day and it will be ready fairly quickly on the day itself. I need to go out just at the crucial time to visit someone and then pick someone up so will just need to do it fast when I get back as none of us like eating late in the day. I'm also thinking I can do some of them a bit fancy with lots inside, and one of them just quite plain, so that it will be nice to individualise it for each of us. There's only 4 of us for Christmas.

It's an expensive recipe so I don't want a trial run before Christmas, but as I like cooking it will keep me interested rather than just do a joint of beef which is our usual.

So, I've read a few recipes but can you tell me if you've tried doing this yourself and how it went? How easy is it?

Honestly - I'd buy them if there's only 4 of you. They're a bit of a pain and can go wrong, even if you're a great cook. There are several reputable places you can order them from if you google.

It's very fiddly to prepare.
I'm a good cook, & my only attempt was a disaster !
I managed to salvage the meat, slice it & carry on frying it - it was too rare even for me & I like my steak very rare!

I'd look for a ready-prepared one, I think M&S do one.

I really would not do individual ones.
Get a 1kg middle fillet and do it in one piece. There may be leftovers, but that is a bonus!

One cut into 4 slices will be much easier than 4 individual ones.

Am not sure how you would individualize them as they all need pastry and a mushroom layer. You can wrap in some ham as well for extra protection but they just end up overcomplicated.

When I made one the fillet plus mushroom duxelles were very rich, not plain at all.

Very useful replies, thank you! Maybe I need to rethink and perhaps do individual ones when it's just me and dh and it doesn't matter too much what happens. I'd hate to mess it up on Christmas day. I appreciate you all taking the time to reply!

I made individual beef wellingtons for Christmas once. As I served them up my DF said they looked like Cornish pasties!
However, they were lovely! I followed Delia's recipe.

@SSorrowsPrayers oh my, that's the sort of comment my dh is likely to make now I think of it!

They did a beef wellington masterclass on Saturday kitchen this weekend- if that was the one with Giovanna Fletcher- I do remember MT saying individual ones are harder to get right but maybe have a watch if that and see what you think @thisoldcity?

Thanks, @ISeeTrees ! Might give it a watch, but I'm rapidly cooling on the idea now for my own sanity! My idea was to make everything less stressful but I'm not sure this is the solution.

I bet Cook sell nice beef wellingtons.