Tartare

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For the popular sauce, please see tartare sauce.

Tartare is a preparation of finely chopped raw meat or fish optionally with seasonings and sauces.

Examples are

Steak tartare,
Venison tartare,
Salmon tartare,
Tuna tartare.

Typically, a Tartare is served as a spread for toast. The name is popularly derived from the Tatars.

1 History
2 See also
3 Further reference
4 External references

[edit] History

The derivation of the tartare method of preparation in the most popular version of events dates back to the Mongols under Genghis Khan. The Tatars (Tartars) or Mongols would spend months at a time on horseback and needed to carry their food supply with them. The all-cavalry army was supplied from carts travelling behind the force. They needed food that could be easily carried from place to place and could be eaten without stopping, since speed of movement was critical to their success.

Mongol soldiers would carry patties of horsemeat, beef, lamb and mutton under their saddle. This cushioned their buttocks and softened the meat.

By the time of Kublai Khan, the dish had reached Moscow with the Mongol invasion of Russia. The Russians adopted the dish with just beef under the name steak tartare and gradually added chopped onions and egg to the beef. The tartare method had also reached China where Marco Polo encountered it for beef and other foods. No longer prepared on horseback, the meat was ground in a kitchen.

German sailors, especially from Hamburg, encountered the dish on trading missions in Russia. They brought the dish back to Germany where steak tartare became known as tartare steak. It also gained the alternate name of Hamburg steak which became popular amongst the working class. German immigrants brought the dish to the US in the late 18th and early 19th century where it became known as a hamburger. This dish was not served in bread or buns until the 1880's or 1890's.

The tartare method of food preparation has declined due to the possibility of contracting a bacterial infection. However, the hamburger became one of the world's most popular dishes by the end of the 20th century.