Julia Child's beef Wellington

Put one third cup of olive oil, half a cup each of sliced carrots, celery and onions, three all-spice berries, six peppercorns, a quarter teaspoon each of sage and dried thyme and bay leaves in a saucepan.

Cook slowly on low heat with a lid on; the vegetables are tender after 10 minutes.

Tie string around the tenderloin at one inch intervals and place it in a casserole dish.

Sprinkle around a teaspoon of salt over the beef, spoon the vegetable mixture on top and add one cup of dry white vermouth and one third cup of cognac.

Baste, then turn and baste again every few hours, keeping it covered and chilled for 24 hours.

Whisk three cups of all-purpose flour with two teaspoons of salt, then cut in one and a half sticks of chilled butter with a pastry cutter.

Cut in four tablespoons of chilled shortening until the butter is broken up and coated with flour.

Drizzle in the three quarter cup of ice water, stirring with a wooden spoon, then bring together with the fingertips without overworking.

Bag the dough and chill it in the back of the fridge for two hours.

Roll three fifths of the pie dough into a 16 by 7 rectangle and lay it over the buttered loaf pan, trimming to about one and a half inches deep to allow for shrinkage.

Prick the bottom and sides of the case with a fork at quarter inch intervals to avoid a soggy crust.

Roll the other piece of dough into another 16 by 7 rectangle, spread cold but soft butter on the bottom half, fold in half to enclose, repeat with another one and a half tablespoons, fold in thirds: a mock puff pastry. Chill two hours.

Rub the marinated meat with oil, in place of suet.

Roast it for 25 minutes in the upper third of the oven, basting with oil every five minutes; this stiffens the beef without cooking it so it holds its shape in the crust.

Cool the beef out of the pan for half an hour or more.

Chop the cleaned trimmed mushrooms to one eighth of an inch, six cups of minced mushrooms in the end, using the food processor.

Bake the case until very lightly browned in the middle of a preheated 425 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, then cool 10 minutes.

Squeeze the mushrooms a handful at a time in a clean dish towel to extract the juices; keep the juices.

For the sauce, combine the contents of the marinade and the squeezed mushroom juices, a cup worth, with two cups of beef stock and a tablespoon of tomato paste and simmer for an hour.

Melt two tablespoons of butter, add the mushrooms and four tablespoons of minced shallot and saute seven to eight minutes until the mushrooms start separating from each other.

Add half a cup of Madeira wine and boil rapidly until the liquid has evaporated; add salt and pepper.

Beat four to five tablespoons of foie gras into the still warm mushrooms so it melts in; cover with a kitchen towel and refrigerate.

Strain the sauce; it reduced to one cup rather than two.

Make a slurry of Madeira wine and one tablespoon of cornstarch, add it to the heat and stir until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Roll out the mock puff pastry into a rectangle and cut a three inch strip from the long end; keep it on parchment paper under a damp towel, and cut decorations from the leftovers with a ravioli cutter.

Snip the strings off the beef, spread half the duxelles in the pastry case, lay in the beef and cover the meat and the sides with the remaining mushrooms, pressing some against the open end.

Paint egg wash around the sides, drape over the mock puff pastry, add the decorations with egg wash as glue and paint the whole thing with egg.

Poke two vents in the top and fit chimneys, and lightly cross-hatch the top for texture.

Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes to start, middle rack.

Once the pastry starts to brown, turn the oven down to 375 degrees F for another 20 to 25 minutes.

Julia says to pull it at 137 degrees F; it was pulled at 125 degrees F for medium rare and rested around 20 minutes.