from
Behind the French Menu
By
Bryan G. Newman
Steak Tartare -Bœuf Tartare
Steak
Tartare, Bœuf Tartare- The steak in the manner of the Tartars, the
famous and frightening fighters who rode to war under the direction of Genghis
Khan beginning in the 13th century. Steak Tartar begins with
uncooked ground or chopped beef. Despite the lack of a frying pan or grill, in
France, this may be one of the greatest steak dishes that you have ever tasted.
Steak Tartar is spiced beef made with steak.
Twentieth-century folklore has the Tartar tribesmen riding to war with raw meat under their horses' saddles. As they rode, the beef was tenderized and the riders were said to cut off pieces of the raw meat with a knife; they only stopped riding to sleep. Despite the name, Steak Tartar (Tartare) is far from any real Tartar culinary traditions.
Who were the Tartars
The Tartars became famous when
the Mongols, in the 13th century, led by Genghis Khan had made the Tartars part
of his army. Later the sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan
would lead the Mongol invasions with the most feared fighters being the Tartars. At
its height, these “hordes” ruled parts of Eastern Europe, all of Bulgaria, and
large parts of Siberia. The Tartars were finally defeated by Russia in the 16th century
and their leaders who agreed to become Orthodox Christians became part of the
Russian aristocracy.
Steak Tartar begins with uncooked ground or chopped beef. Despite the lack of a frying pan or grill, in France, this may be one of the greatest steak dishes that you have ever tasted. Steak Tartar is spiced beef made with steak.
Good Restaurant Theater
For those who enjoy good
restaurant theater, some make an enjoyable show of mixing the tartare’s ingredients
in front of the diners as there is no cooking involved. The French Steak
Tartare is a spicy dish, but then for most UK and North American visitors,
nothing in France is very spicy. You may request more or less Tabasco or
Worcester sauce.
Your
French menu may offer you:
Tartare de Boeuf
(180g) et ses Condiments avec Frites Fraîches « Maison » et Salade - Beef
Tartar (180g (6.5 oz)) with condiments. Served
with fresh the restaurant’s special “homemade" French fries and salad.
The condiments for
a steak tatar: While they vary with the chef they often
include; shallots,
capers,
cornichons
Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco
sauce, parsley, chives. An
egg yolk (often served on top of the tartar), salt and freshly ground black
pepper
Steak
Tartare, Frites, Salade – Steak
Tartar served with French fries and a small green salad.
Steak
Tartare Bœuf Fin Gras du Mézenc Coupé au Couteau, Salade Verte
et Pommes Sautées, – Steak
Tartar, chopped with a knife, from the Bœuf
Fin Gras du Mézenc AOC/AOP, one of France’s finest beef cattle. The steak is
accompanied by a green salad and sautéed potatoes.
Steak TatareAs eaten for breakfast by Sigmund FreudAccording to the Blog: (From
Jewish Viennese Food. Sigmund
Freud was eating steak tartare for breakfast every day, a fact which his cook
and long-time servant, Paula Fichtl, recorded in her diaries. (She was in
the service of the Freud family from 1929 until the death of Anna Freud in
1982.) Photograph and story courtesy
of Jewish
Viennese Food
Steak Tartare Servi Cru ou Juste Saisi - Steak Tatar
prepared traditionally, uncooked, or very lightly fried.
Steak Tartare is traditionally served raw, but some
diners, including many in France, prefer it juste saisi, or very lightly
seared, while not wanting a hamburger, they do not want the meat completely
raw. You'll find many restaurants offer this variation, sometimes even if it's
not explicitly on the menu.
Juste Saisi : meaning just ready or
lightly seared; a very important cooking term for meat, fish, seafood, and
other products that must never be overcooked, or hardly cooked at all, to
preserve their delicate texture and flavor.
Boeuf Tartare aux Couteaux – Steak Tatar sliced
with a knife. While it may seem obvious that a steak Tatar will be
sliced, a medium to lower-priced restaurant may want to make it clear that
their Tartare is not simply ground beef. Part of a great Tartare
is the texture, and hand-cutting provides the best.
Tartare de Cheval - A horse meat Tatar.
Horse meat has always had its devotees who enjoy its slightly sweeter meat, and
that is true of other European countries, with Italy leading; other countries
where horse meat is popular include Spain, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland.
Horse meat is controlled in France, and animals from racing, etc, will not
enter the food chain. In an area where horsemeat is popular, you may see
a Boucherie Chevaline or a Boucherie Hippophagique, a horsemeat
butcher.
N.B. Don't confuse steak à cheval with Tartare
de Cheval; they are entirely different dishes. A Steak à Cheval
is a beef steak topped with a fried or poached egg.
Tartare
de Cheval
A horse meat
Tartare
Photograph
courtesy of Trip Advisor.
Ordering a Steak Tartare with an English or a North American accent.
From my experience, if you're an
English-speaking visitor ordering Steak Tartare in a French restaurant,
be ready for a moment of clarification from your server. On more than one
occasion, I've had a server—and even the maître d'—kindly but firmly
double-check if I understood that the dish is not cooked.
I asked why they were so concerned with my choice. It turned out that in this establishment, somewhat on the fringes of the usual tourist routes, there have been overseas guests who ordered this dish without any idea of what steak tartar was. They had to have their steak tartar cooked and ended up with a hamburger minus the buns.
Steak Tartare at an Apéro – An invitation to a drink, an apéritif, but not a dinner invitation. An Apéro is a social gathering with light snacks. An invitation is typically verbal, with a set time, and it's polite to arrive no more than ten minutes late. Crisps, nuts, bite-sized sausages or open sandwiches that may include Steak Tartare. An apéro will usually be over within an hour
Steak Tartare open sandwiches,
Photograph courtesy of Raj Taneja at Flickr.
The history of uncooked (raw) meat dishes goes back thousands of years, but for restaurant menus and recipe books its about 125 years.
The earliest printed recipe for an uncooked meat dish that I've found is from Georges Auguste Escoffier’s 1903 Le Guide Culinaire. The recipe, called Beefsteak à l'Américaine (Steak in the American manner), is very similar to today's Steak Tartare, including capers, onions, parsley, and a raw egg yolk on top.
To be clear, the name Beefsteak à l’Américaine doesn't actually mean the recipe is American. In the 19th century, it was common practice in French cuisine to name new dishes and sauces after countries simply because it sounded exotic or appealing. That explains names like Sauce Hollandaise and Sauce Espagnole. By the 1930s, however, menus began listing the dish as Steak Tartare or Bœuf Tartare, and so ownership of the dish was moved from the Americans to the Tatars.
The recipe for Beefsteak à l’Américaine is on page
615.
Photograph courtesy of Gallica
The
dish appeared as Steak Tartare in the 1938 edition
of Prosper Montagnes’ Larousse Gastronomique on page
134
Chopped veal and beef dishes elsewhere have been influenced by the French Beefsteak à l'Américaine or the Italian dish Carne Cruda alla Piemontese, from the Piedmonte region in Italy as Alba. Many countries had spiced chopped meat dishes and while the names may have changes Poland also lays claim to Steak Tatar with Befsztyk Tatarski.
The recipes for Tatare spread to fish, seafood, fruit and vegetables.
Tartare de Saumon Épicé – Spicy Salmon Tartar. Unlike Steak Tartare, there is no agreed recipe covering this dish;
however, most recipes use spicy sesame oil made from roasted sesame seed,
uncooked tomatoes, cornichons for the crunch, and onions. Some
recipes add ginger, and others Worcester sauce or Tabasco.
Tartare de Thon Rouge - Tuna Tartar. Both French and French-Japanese restaurants offer this dish. I have enjoyed more than one version, including an excellent Temaki Tuna Tartare very similar to the picture below.
Temaki de Tartare de Thon au Jambon Cru et aux Tomates
A tuna temaki with cured
ham and tomatoes
Photograph and recipe Atelier
Des Chefs.
Vegetable Tartare – Vegetarian and vegan Tartar dishes may also be
on the menu. The recipes include crunchy fresh vegetables such as cauliflower,
cabbage, beetroot and possibly radishes or fresh horseradish for spice. Holding
the vegetables together will be a flavored mayonnaise, and in France,
cornichons will be there for their taste and crunch. In France, the mayonnaise
will nearly always be freshly made.
Vegetable Tatar
Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor.
Your menu may also offer dessert Tartars:
Fruit tartar, red fruit coulis, mascarpone
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
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