< Back to Main Blog Posted: Aug 2024

Getting the Most out of Your COOK Beef Wellington

Our essential tips for cooking and serving.

If you’re serving up one of our Beef Wellingtons dishes for this Christmas dinner, you’ve chosen well! The cooking instructions are all on the box, but we’ve also done a short video (below) on how to cook and serve your Beef Wellington, to make sure it’s the best it can be.

Top Tips for Beef Wellington

1. The first rule of COOK Beef Wellies is they must be defrosted (in the fridge) before cooking.

2. The second rule is they must be defrosted (in the fridge) before cooking! Seriously, don’t forget. You could always set an alarm so that you don’t get caught out.

3. For the best possible pastry, you’ll want to get the oven and the baking tray up to 200° before you start cooking. The tray needs to be really hot so the bottom of the pastry on the wellington starts to cook as soon as it hits it.

4. Whilst your oven and tray are heating up, remove the welly from all its packaging so it’s ready to go. When the oven and tray are up to temperature, get the tray out of the oven and place the greaseproof paper provided onto the tray and the beef welly on top of that. Back in the oven it goes as quickly as poss so it starts to cook without losing heat.

5. Once cooked, remove the Beef Welly from the oven and leave it to rest on the baking tray for 5 – 10 mins. Once rested, transfer onto a board and carve with a good, sharp knife – a serrated one works best, and a sharp bread knife will do.

6. You’ll find our 2 portion Beef Wellington in our shops all year round, but over the Christmas period (Sept – Jan) you’ll also find our larger Beef Wellington for 6, which comes with a delicious red wine jus. If you’re buying the smaller 2 portion and would like to make a jus to go with it, the recipe’s below.

7. Wine Matching: A good wellington needs a good wine! We suggest a red Bordeaux or a Chilean Merlot.

Fact of the Day

Some wild theories exist around where the Beef Wellington got its name. Our favourite is that it was a patriotic rebranding of the French beouf en croute, eaten by the Duke of Wellington the night before the Battle of Waterloo. Almost certainly not true, but a good yarn.

We hope your Beef Wellington gives you a lot of pleasure and very little washing up. Do get in touch with us on feedback@cookfood.net and let us know how you get on, we always love to hear your feedback, ideas or random musings!

Beef Wellington for two

 Beef Wellington for six

< Back to Main Blog Posted: Aug 2024