Beef Wellington- what beef to buy??

[Motomum23]

My husband wants me to make beef Wellington (thank you Gordon ramsey). So I looked up a recipe which calls for 1kg of beef tenderloin... well that comes in at £85 and whilst we aren't struggling there's no way I'm spending £85 on one meal it's probably a third of our weekly food shop! So intelligent people in my phone - I'm serving for probably 4 (3 definitely will eat it and possibly 2 small portions for children) what alternative cuts/sizes of cut should I be looking for and where do I get it???

Gosh! Bit of a funny thing to be cooking t the moment what with the court case in Oz or is that just me?

back to the question, don’t cut corners on the cut of meat because it only gets cooked or steamed in effect inside the pastry. It’s therefore not going to work with a tougher cut.

Why don’t you just find a restaurant with it on the menu??

Fillet is the only cut that works.

As above, once the meat is seared it just cooks inside the pastry, so has to be top notch.

I've made it with pork tenderloin, which was very successful.

I paid that price for a WHOLE tenderloin from which I then cut the 30cm piece for the Wellington, sliced 6 generous steaks and cubed up the rest.
I’m sure a traditional butcher would sell you just the Wellington fillet.
I recommend Chef Jean-Pierre on YouTube for a tutorial. It was like 24 hours’ work for 20 minutes eating!
Photo attached!

Fillet steak

There were 4 hungry adults on Christmas Day and plenty of leftovers.

Fillet is what you want but it's still super expensive. I did it once for Christmas and never again because there is too much prep

Do you think your DH has any concept that he's asking for a very expensive meal or does he just think it will be a change from spag bol?
I'd tell him how much it costs and then see if he has a rethink.

Why can't your husband make it, if he wants it? If my DH wanted something that takes so much faffing around, he would do it himself.

No point using anything other than fillet or it will be a disappointment.

That said you could go with the individual ones if the Australian story hasn't put you off! Might get a better deal with one of the supermarkets if you get them on special, good bit cheaper per kilo usually.

Do not skimp on the qualité of the meat. The results will be disappointing.

Go to a proper but her.

Fillet is the only real option, otherwise it will be a lot of faff for something that may not work. You can order a whole beef wellington from Waitrose for £65.00. You might as well do that by the time you factor in the cost of all ingredients and time spent making it.

There's a posh ready-meals company called "cook" that does one for 2 people for £30. There might be a shop near you.
I haven't used them , but a close friend says they're excellent.

It's gotta be fillet.

This Lorraine Pascale version of individual ones is easy AND uses a smaller amount of meat so is more economical - you could have the DC share one, or pop a bit of chicken boob in theirs instead 🤣

Just make individual ones. Very simple and a lot less expensive. Has to be fillet steak.

I would probably buy fillet steaks and make individual ones...that would probably be slightly cheaper.

Don't forage for the mushrooms, you might inadvertently pick death caps.

Idk why everyone is saying it 'has to be fillet'. Of course it doesn't. Use the cheapest, toughest cut you can find, so the end result is horrible and he never expects you to cook something like this again!

🤣🤣 sorry everyone for my lack of replies. I really enjoy cooking new things I've just never tackled a Wellington before... I mean I'll happily spend my Saturday making croissants for Sunday breakfast and that takes an age for something that's only mildly better than shop bought (except when I put pecans and cinnamon sugar in them! Omg!)
I've managed to find a good butchers that sell fillet steaks for about £12 so much less than the £85 for a full 1kg cut and will go with the mini ones. Oh and I won't be foraging mushrooms so no concerns there. :)

Thanks for the suggestion - I live in rural Cornwall though so unlikely to find anything remotely posh here!