I've been wanting to make a Beef Wellington ever since I had one at The Rubens in London (seriously best meal I've ever eaten, and most expensive, lol)
All recipes call for prosciutto though and when I make it it'll be for someone who eats kosher-ish.
What else could I use? Seems weird to wrap a beef roast in pastrami. And I am struggling to think of something with that cured, salty buttery-ness that would work.
Pretty sure that's just wrong. Don't know the history of the dish but it seems reasonable to assume it was invented in Britain in the 19th century in honour of the Duke of Wellington.
Prosciutto was unknown in Britain at the time. It could perhaps have been ham instead.
But it wasn't. The standard and traditional version is always mushrooms.
@regordane From what I have been able to read up in a bit of looking. Crepes were traditionally used. But using some kind of parma ham or prosciutto is pretty much bog standard for a wellington these days.
In that Jamie Oliver recipe you linked isn't traditional either. He uses breadcrumbs instead of the crepes.
The intention is basically forming a moisture barrier between the filling and the pastry.
So I wouldn't say it's wrong, just that the dish has evolved.
I've never heard of using *crepes. In such a classic British dish this comes across as completely wrong.
*Yeah, it's in Wikipedia. But no. Just no.
Reliable sources do suggest using fois gras or liver paté together with the mushroom duxelles. The Jamie Oliver recipe seems to be based on this, making a paté out of liver, mushrooms and breadcrumbs. But I've had mushroom only versions which seem to seal well enough on its own.
This is the version of it I'm most familiar with, and every recipe I've seen is some variation thereof. Roast, coated in the mushroom pate, then wrapped in thin ham (of some sort) then pastry.
@MsHearthWitch First and foremost, I think that pastrami would work a treat. You might also want to try Italian bresaola. It’s beef treated similarly to prosciutto, but usually a leaner cut.
@MsHearthWitch To me anyhow, bresaola has that same salty/funky cured meat quality that one finds in prosciutto. And pastrami often has all of that lovely smokiness. I would happily use either.
@MsHearthWitch It's a bad joke, sorry. Beef Wellington is a treat, but I haven't made it since 1984. Friend showed up for a visit with a bottle of Pauillac and we had to do something equally expensive and silly.
@MsHearthWitch Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Moshe Dyan was one of the most successful generals in the Six Day War in 1967. I suspect that there might have been Bayonne ham in the original beef Wellington, so the pastrami would be in keeping with the cultural shift.
@MsHearthWitch
I love beef wellington and it's going to be hard to replace that salty rich flavour of the prosciutto. That's would be my replacement.
The only other thing to do is go to a real deli (not grocery store deli) and ask what they would suggest.
Good luck!
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