Unable to load image
/h/food
Mwang1996 they/them  1yr ago (text post) 343 thread views #191892

Filet Mignon

Advice welcome on balancing the salt level between the duxelles, prosciutto, and the actual tenderloin itself.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1690600204974841.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/1690600205394946.webp

40
New Old Top Bottom Controversial Random
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

View entire discussion

That’s not filet mignon it’s a beef Wellington, you poor fricking cute twink (no offense).

I’ve tried it a few times myself and failed twice.

The first mistake is trying to make duxelles from a mushroom puree instead of pâté de foie gras. There’s no substitute for the liver of a suffering goose. Mushrooms will clump up and cause the pastry to cook unevenly.

Also the less puff pastry you use the better. What seems like a paper thin slice of pastry will expand in the oven more than you’d think. Too much pastry equals an uncooked tenderloin and a soggy dish.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I’ll try foie gras, sounds like an interesting idea. Would you warm it up beforehand to smear it on better or sauté it? Would you add anything else to the foie gras?

I would think the foie gras would make it almost too rich (and some people I cook for don’t like it) but it’s worth at least another try.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Leave the foie gras out with the tenderloin until they’re both room temperature. It’ll make the foie gras easier to spread, and the tenderloin cook more evenly.

You need to smear the tenderloin with a mild mustard after you sear it to add some acidity. I prefer Dijon because its acidity balances the dish and adds a touch of spice.

I like to sauté the foie gras with a couple diced sprigs of taragon, but that’s a little different from the traditional preparation.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I always leave my meats out before sear to reach room temp. I did Dijon before as well with the beef Wellington I cooked in this pic.

I wouldn’t understand when you’d sauté it. Sauté spread or spread sear? I figure sautéing it would create a crust, which is great for flavor but bad for the spreadability.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I don’t know what sauté actually means, I’m not a trained chef.

What I mean is that if you put the foie gras in a pan with a healthy heaping of butter and minced taragon and cook it until you get a distinct aroma of the taragon with a hint of the foie gras, then take that out of the pan and pureé it, the finished dish will taste better.

Leave that pureé out until it’s room temperature, spread it on the tenderloin, then wrap it with as thin a layer of pastry as you can. But first baste the pastry sheet with a little butter. After you wrap it baste again with some melted butter and score it with a kinfe.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Sauté generically means fry in a bit of oil. I like the food processor part, clever way to get it back to an even consistency, but does it make the foie gras more gummy?

Ok, thanks for the breakdown. I’ll give it a shot and if it turns out well I’ll post results.

Edit: Why did your attempts fail? You might need a better barrier between your fillet and the puff pastry.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The fancy hard-working Americans in the old country are pretty good at making a well-marbled sweeter ham. I’ve never tried it but I bet it would turn out better.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I don’t remember it being too gummy.

Both failed attempts I had were because I tried to dice the mushrooms and pâté instead of making a purée.

For lack of a better word they were both too chunky and the pastry and meat didn’t cook evenly. I will say that the mushrooms were too salty with the prosciutto.

I think I also tried to use prosciutto that was aged too long once. I bought the most expensive prosciutto I could find, and it was excellent by itself but the dish was too salty. I think it was 34 month aged.

Knowing a little about how the dirty, sub-human, wops cure meats, I bet that the older the meat the saltier it will be.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Okay thanks. I had a lesser version of your salt troubles but I adjusted the duxelles salt level and also had a food processor for my mushrooms. Thanks for the info!

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Attempt 1 failed because the pastry was too thick. Attempt 2 failed because I made a mushroom duxelles that wasn’t puréed and it cooked the pastry unevenly and came apart when I tried to slice it - it was also too salty because I used a prosciutto that was aged too long.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Link copied to clipboard
Action successful!
Error, please refresh the page and try again.