Where Does Beef Wellington Come From?

If you like beef it is likely that you have at one time or another tasted or at least heard of Beef Wellington. There are many recipes and many versions that claim to be the "original recipe". Some included truffle paste, others used plain pastry dough instead of puff pastry, further variations included various cuts of meat as filling. The truth of the matter is that this famous dish as we know it now is actually a creation of the 1960's, based on an a recipe with an original inception in the early 19th Century. We have found a few resources that mention the history of this famous dish and have traced it back to its first documented appearance on a fancy dinner table.

At the end of the 18th century it was very popular to cook meat inside pastry shells, sometimes with a sauce much like pot pies, and often just wrapping the cut with vegetables in a basic pastry made with flour and water. This pastry would protect the meat from the extreme and hard to regulate heat from the period's kitchen appliances. All of which combined to produce a juicy and fragrant cut.

The origins of the basic recipe for Beef Wellington can be traced back to the kitchen of Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington. Wellesley is famous for having beaten Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. The Duke was quite indifferent to food, and cooks often strived for a good impression by creating the most succulent dishes for him -- and that is how the first Beef Wellington was invented. That first version of the dish was filled with truffle paste instead of duxelle mushrooms and the wrapping was normal pastry dough.

Several other sources mention that the dish might have gotten its name from the resemblance to a highly polished riding boot -- also called a wellington boot -- when taken out of the oven. Either way, the delicious version we know now was created in the 60's. It seems that some good hostess at the time (wanting to impress her guests) found the recipe and decided that the ingredients, preparation process, and presentation were a great showpiece of her culinary expertise. The dish was everything a gourmet dish should be, rich, dramatic, expensive, difficult to prepare... and the conversation piece of the time for dinner parties. Beef Wellington was said to be President Nixon's favorite.

As time passed, Beef Wellington lost its popularity for the same reasons it had become popular. New life styles and busy lives produced time constraints for cooking that made it hard to put Beef Wellington on home menus. Fortunately, in the 90's the cycle started over, as the dish was featured in several culinary magazines such as Gourmet and Bon Appetit, sparking a returned popularity and gourmet status.

This may be more about Beef Wellington than you ever wanted to know... but the best thing of all is that you don't have to worry about the cooking part, leave that to us and make it the centerpiece of your next party!

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