Beef Wellington - yes or no?

[Mrsb999]

DH and I have decided that we are going to go out for Xmas lunch on our own as my parents and his are both away.

Menu for the place we have chosen has beef Wellington served medium rare as a choice for main course.

I'm thinking I'm just going to go for it as not only will the steak have been flash fried first to seal it but it will also be oven cooked after being wrapped in the pastry.

DH isn't too sure as to whether its ok or not.

I will be 27 weeks by then, any opinions greatly appreciated!

have you read this?

I'd eat it, no hesitation at all. But then I eat my steak practically raw when not pregnant so med rare is real compromise for me.

I think pink/ medrare is fine in terms of guidelines anyway- though I am sure someone will say different!

I think it would be fine as it would be made from a solid bit of beef rather than chopped up meat like a burger.

Sound tasty!.

mintyy yes I read that it's just there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice around - my friends midwife advised her it was ok to eat medium rare steak which she has during both her pregnancies. Haven't checked with mine though, will do on my next check up.

I wouldn't, purely on the basis that your DH is worried about it, so isn't going to be able to relax or enjoy his meal for fretting.

Most things I've read on this say that medium beef is fine as it's been cooked on the outside and is one piece of meat like Ginger says.

Anything that's minced like a burger or sausages should be cooked all the way through though.

I am 27 weeks and had a very tasty medium steak last week!

It's not that he's overly worried just not sure, like me he thinks it may be ok just wants to do a bit of research first.

Maybe I'll just stick to the turkey, I just know I will get beef Wellington envy as that's what he is planning on ordering too!

Yes

Would avoid steak tartare or a blue steak, but this would be cooked.

Depends on what the pate is around the beef. If it was mushroom, I'd have it. If it was a meat pate, I would absolutely avoid.

Ahhhh I forgot all about the pâté, when we make one at home we use blended up mushrooms. Will definitely avoid if its normal pâté!

I had to make this call last week. I went for it, on the basis that as long as steak is seared on the outside it's fine (current advice), and mine was a mushroom duxelle not a pate. Time to phone the restaurant I think!

Yep think I need to phone them, we don't actually have to order our food until the day itself but I will check beforehand so I'm not disappointed on the day, there are lots of lovely other things to chose from so all is not lost.

Thanks for the advice everyone

I would eat it, but I'm in Denmark and rare meat is allowed. The only thing I'm not allowed to eat is ginger and pâté so I've ignored all the uk pregnacy food rules.

why no ginger? over here you are constantly told to eat ginger biscuits for morning sickness, the world would stop if you couldn't eat ginger

I ate nothing but ginger for the first few weeks!

I said No to this when pg because of the pâté too.

I'd go for it... at one of my first MW appointments, I was told that med/rare steak is fine to eat and great for getting your iron intake x

The guidelines used to be that steak was fine rare so long as it was cooked on the outside. it's only been changed recently and one of the nhs pages days this is only as precautionary measure while they consider it further, ie not because there is any evidence so far that rare steak may be a risk.

I'd eat it with pate too. The pate it's nearer the outside so will have been sufficiently cooked in my view to minimise the already low risk of listeria and you're only eating a small amount so vitamin a levelsare not going to be that high.

I would not even think twice about this. Honestly. The chance of any problems are so tiny. Did you know that most cases of listeria are from.... Lettuce. Not meat. not cheese. Or any of the other things we are wary of.

Enjoy your Christmas dinner.

Also, why in earth does the fact that its cooked on outside make it potentially on for some people? This isn't even one i have heard before so I do t even know theory behind it.

The risk with some meats is toxoplasmosis, not listeria. It's not in the meat itself but there can be contamination during the slaughtering and butchering process, so is on the surface of the piece of meat. If it's seared on the outside any bacteria should be killed.

They think ginger is bad for brain development. Over here they recommend 25mg of vitamin B6 for morning sickness. I live that I can eat runny eggs and I'm allowed smoked salmon too :) but I'm too much of a wimp to eat raw fish at the moment.

I would eat it, pâté, rare beef and all. Enjoy :)

As uk chickens are vaccinated for salmonella you can eat runny eggs here too.

I'd eat it but then i take all these food rulrs with a major pinch of salt happily tucking into a goats cheese tart last week.