{"id":3177,"date":"2011-11-26T23:13:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-27T05:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/?p=3177"},"modified":"2011-11-27T09:44:06","modified_gmt":"2011-11-27T15:44:06","slug":"the-dish-and-the-duke-of-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/?p=3177","title":{"rendered":"The Dish and the Duke of Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The holiday season was made for re-connecting with the family and engorging on great food.\u00a0 I am lucky to have a mother who is a fabulous cook and upon the occasion of holiday, I get to sit back and experience great culinary events.\u00a0 Thanksgiving is as traditional as they come in food selection, celebrating the seasonal turn and culmination of the harvest, but my mother is not limited to the traditional.\u00a0 For this Thanksgiving, the fare of celebration was not fowl nor ham, but rather – Beef Wellington.\u00a0 Definitely a menu item ‘against the grain’.\u00a0 Regardless, the dish is certainly celebratory, and has a celebratory origin.\u00a0 Beef Wellington, a filet of beef braised with a pate’ of mushrooms and meat, and encased in pastry, bespeaks a richness in both taste and history.\u00a0 The creation has been linked to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, and indirectly savors the victory of the defender of anglo-saxon civilization against the monolithic and aggressive French dictator Napoleon.\u00a0 In fitting fashion for reflecting \u00a0such a place in history, it just happens to be delicious as well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our erstwhile hero the Duke of Wellington may have had, in actuality, nothing to do with the dish attributed to him.\u00a0 Most culinary experts tie the origin to permutations of the french\u00a0filet de boeuf en crote’<\/em>, with the connection to Wellington his love of Madeira wine, beef, and truffles. The more romantic connection is the heroic nature of the meal and the namesake.\u00a0 Achieving the synthesis of a perfectly temperatured filet, maintaining its succulence, and preventing the pastry from turning into a soggy mess is no mean feat.\u00a0 These are cooking logistics that would make a genius logistician like Arthur Wellesley quite proud. Crowned with fresh asparagus spears tendered in chicken stock, cauliflower, and mashed potatoes, the centerpiece becomes elevated to a delicious, rather elegant plane.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The great man befitting such a dish was born in Ireland in 1769 to noble birth, but it was not until he entered the army that a hint of the man that was to come made an appearance.\u00a0 He entered at the lowly station of ensign, but his connections lead to rapid advancement, when it became apparent that a once drifting youth proved to be premier leader of men.\u00a0 Wellesley found his footing in the battles the British Empire fought in subduing the subcontinent of India, specifically in the actions against the Sultan of Mysore,\u00a0Tipu Sultan.\u00a0 The young soldier led men\u00a0to victories in the battles of Mallavelly\u00a0and Seringapatam against the\u00a0Sultan that secured British influence over the southern Indian land\u00a0mass. He continued his success in further campaigns against the powerful and larger Maratha Empire highlighted by the violent battle of Assaye, in which his personal bravery, coolness under fire,\u00a0and willingness to be in the midst of battle endeared him to his troops.\u00a0 His rank swelled with the victories and he achieved the rank of\u00a0general by the time he left India in\u00a01804.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He returned to Britain to enter politics, but the threat to the realm presented by the brilliant French general Bonaparte through his military domination of the continent would dominate the next decade of his life.\u00a0 The land mass of Europe was Napoleon’s running experiment in new battle tactics in massed forces, logistics, use of cavalry and artillery.\u00a0 Wellesley’s specific personality trait of patient battle development and assurance of favorable conditions made him a worthy opponent, and progressively, a threat to Napoleon’s dream of world dominance.\u00a0 Wellesley’s reputation was\u00a0assured in his contribution to the destruction of the French flank in the Peninsula Wars for Spain and Portugal, and helped lead to Napolean’s first abdication and eventual confinement on Elba in 1813.\u00a0 The battle of Salamanca, freeing Madrid from French forces, and subsequently the crushing of the residual French\u00a0redoubts at Vitoria, resulted in the retreat of the French army led by Field Marshal Soult and the elevation of Wellesley to Field Marshal status himself, and appointment by the King as 1st Duke of Wellington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The momentous escape by Napoleon from Elba and the rapid return to power had all Europe shuddering. An allied force of northern Europeans and British was rapidly assembled, and Napoleon saw the need to sweep out of France into Belgium to destroy the alliance and return France to its dominant position.\u00a0 The battle was met in the town of Ligny, and a momentary victory was achieved by Napoleon against the Prussian forces led by General Blucher, resulting in the retreat of the allied armies to a ridge just outside the town of Waterloo.\u00a0 On June 18th, 1815, Napoleon set forth to destroy the Prussians and then the British sequentially.\u00a0 The titanic battle fought among several hundred thousand troops has become known as one of the pivotal battles in history.\u00a0 The many layered strategy of\u00a0 Napoleon this time found his equal in craft and strategy in Wellington.\u00a0 the typical French maneuver of overwhelming directed force this time ran into Wellington’s willingness to hold, draw in, and ambush. The chaos of battle, so often in the favor of the superbly trained and experienced French troops, proved all consuming and brought to bear Wellington’s carefully manged reserves and counter thrusts.\u00a0 The result was a crushing French defeat, and Napoleon’s final abdication four days later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The battle for Waterloo against one of history’s greatest military tacticians brought Wellington the status of international hero, a label he would wear through the rest of his 83 years.\u00a0 It served him through a brief interlude as Prime Minister of\u00a0England, and as Commander in Chief of the Forces for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The occasion of his state funeral in 1852 was a level of\u00a0non- royal adoration that would be known only to Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill.\u00a0 The 1st Duke of Wellington secured his position in history as the stone that broke the sword of Napoleon, and as such is worthy of the greatness of the culinary preparation perhaps inappropriately named for him.\u00a0 it is apropo that the selected dessert\u00a0to climax\u00a0such a magnificient meal is the multi-layered creme filled cake, the mille-feuille<\/em>, otherwise known as – the Napoleon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The holiday season was made for re-connecting with the family and engorging on great food.\u00a0 I am lucky to have a mother who is a fabulous cook and upon the occasion of holiday, I get to sit back and experience great culinary events.\u00a0 Thanksgiving is as traditional as they come in food selection, celebrating … <\/p>\n

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