Steak tartare

Steak tartare is a meat dish made from finely chopped or minced raw beef or horsemeat. It is often served with onions, capers and seasonings (the latter typically incorporating fresh ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce), sometimes with a raw egg yolk, and often on rye bread.

The name tartare is sometimes generalized to other raw meat or fish dishes.

Although less common than the completely raw variety, there is a version served in France of steak tartare called tartare aller-retour. It is a mound of mostly raw steak tartare that is lightly seared on one side of the patty.

History

The name is a shortening of the original "à la tartare" or "served with tartar sauce," a dish popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The modern version of steak tartare with raw egg was first served in French restaurants early in the 20th century. What is now generally known as "steak tartare" was then called steack à l'Americaine. Steak tartare was a variation on that dish; the 1921 edition of Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire defines it as steack à l'Americaine made without egg yolk, served with tartar sauce on the side.