help with Beef Wellington

[BSL]

Help--My guest list for tomorrow just grew to 12--for the "Individual Beef Wellington" in the Nov/Dec.l992 issue. My question is: how much of this can I do in advance? I did mushrooms,and sauce today, but what of browning the beef, and the phylo dough on top? Does anyone know if I can get the filets all ready for the oven earlier in the day? I hate to be in the kitchen fighting with the phylo dough when I have company!!!!

[Gail]

I almost hope someone else will come along with a "Been there, done that" story which will negate the advice I'm about to give...

While I haven't made this recipe, I've read it, and I do quite a lot of working with phyllo dough. The ugly reality is that I don't feel it in your best interests to do ahead. Phyllo is tricky. Once you open the package, you have to keep the unused sheets covered (I usually use a waxed paper and a slightly damp towel over that) or the stuff dries out. If you pre-wrap your Wellingtons, in my opinion they're apt to dry out-- if you cover them, they may over time get sticky. The best I can see is perhaps doing the pre-cooking of the meat very slightly in advance and the phyllo as your very last thing before the guests arrive.

...like I said, I hope someone rips this advice to shred based upon personal experience.

The up side is that even if I'm right, phyllo is actually pretty forgiving of mistakes. If you have to make a patch job, or you get messy, no one will be any the wiser.

Good luck!