Have you ever had Steak Tartare?

[vumeister]

I never had tartare and I'm not looking forward to having it anytime soon. I hate uncooked meat! I prefer my burgers well done. Although uncooked fish is another thing. I love my sushi!

 

[operafan]

I had it once in Germany. I am always willing to try something new, but I have to admit after the first time I haven't had the interest in trying it again.

 

[Paradigm]

Actually you can find it around. Mostly frenchish bistros.

The way they usually serve it nowadays is they chop the beef up by hand real fine, then add all kinds of stuff to it, so it really does not taste much like raw beef. That's my problem with it in restaurants, they over spice it.

Anyone know of a place in the US where they serve it the old fashioned way unmixed with the egg yolk on top?

If you can find a really good butcher you trust, you can make it yourself. I keep mine very simple - just some onion, salt, parsley, olive oil and serve it on toasted french bread. Oh so good!

Carpaccio is different - beef is seared on the outside only, then the seared part is cut off. It is then frozen and sliced paper thin. It is very good as well - an italian dish.

 

[NedNickerson]

I can't help but wonder what the restaurants do with what's uneaten. Do they slap it back into a fresh batch of ground meat and shape it back into another pattie, so that nothing goes to waste? Maybe that's what gives it its unique flavor.

Which reminds me - we use to have hamburger place in Memphis that made some of the best hamburgers, fries and onion rings in the world. And then world leaked out that every time they changed the grease in their fry vat, they also kept a gallon of the old grease and added it to the new grease to give it flavor - essentially, the grease that they were using to fry everything was at least 20 years old. When people heard about it, everyone had to find out for themselve what food fried in 20-year-old grease tasted like.

 

[Chip12414]

Many years ago a friend of mine moved to NYC from a dinky little town. He was quite attractive, and was invited to a light dinner at the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel by an elderly gentlemen of means.

My friend made his choice from the menu and jauntily asked the waiter for the "Steak Tartare". With a further flair, he requested that it be "well done". Either the waiter thought my friend was making a joke -- or else was incredibly naive (which was the case) -- and did not comment on the request.

When the dish was served, my friend was enraged and berated the waiter for "forgetting to cook" his dish and sent it back to "be cooked!" "Well done!" The waiter, ever so deftly, took the plate, commenting, "Perhaps this was a bit spicy for you, sir. I will replace it with our steak sandwich -- well done."

 

[theatreboi]

I would totally try that! I like to taste my hamburger meat when I'm making it before it's cooked, just to make sure I didn't go overboard with any of the spices or anything. I frequently say that, given the chance, I would probably eat raw meat.

All that said, we keep kosher, so I really trust the meat I eat at home. I'm not so sure I would trust it out at a restaurant as much.

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>Where? Sounds good.

Strings. Didn't go there, as it ends up.

Lex

 

[braex27]

No. No. Never. Couldn't bring myself to do it. I like rare steak, but ... not completely raw.

 

[Ddouble]

That first photo looks like whoever prepared it,
spent three minutes doing it:

Open pack of ground beef.
Remove enough ground beef to make a pattie.
Add black pepper and Worcestershire sauce.
Knead the ground beef and form a pattie.
Garnish with several tablespoons of
coarsely chopped onion and capers.
Using a spoon, moves onions and capers aside
until you have a small cavity.
Crack an egg into the cavity.
Serve immediately.

No pans to wash, no grill to clean,
no messy stovetop, no need to heat up the oven.
What could be easier?

 

[Ddouble]

Many years ago a friend of mine moved to NYC from a dinky little town. He was quite attractive, and was invited to a light dinner at the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel by an elderly gentlemen of means.

My friend made his choice from the menu and jauntily asked the waiter for the "Steak Tartare". With a further flair, he requested that it be "well done". Either the waiter thought my friend was making a joke -- or else was incredibly naive (which was the case) -- and did not comment on the request.

When the dish was served, my friend was enraged and berated the waiter for "forgetting to cook" his dish and sent it back to "be cooked!" "Well done!" The waiter, ever so deftly, took the plate, commenting, "Perhaps this was a bit spicy for you, sir. I will replace it with our steak sandwich -- well done."

That would have totally been my reaction, too.

 

[Triple G]

Not a "pure" Steak Tartare, but "Mettbrötchen" are often eaten here and very delicious

But usually they don't take horse meat for them

What are those white things on top? Maggots ?

 

[vumeister]

What are those white things on top? Maggots ?

No, they look like onions.

 

[frankfrank]

But these days I don't think you'll see it on the menu in the US given the SORRYstate of our meat inspections...

Corrected for truth.

PARADIGM's quote:

The way they usually serve it nowadays is they chop the beef up by hand real fine, then add all kinds of stuff to it, so it really does not taste much like raw beef. That's my problem with it in restaurants, they over spice it.

OK, so if you have to spice it up like crazy so that the dish has much taste at all, what's the point? I've tasted raw meat before, and I was quite UNIMPRESSED with its extreme blandness - same goes for sushi. In my experience, meat MUST be cooked for the flavor to really burst forth.

Is it possible that some people are more "wired" for the taste of uncooked meat, than others?

 

[Corny]

Yep, onions.
Mett (or Tartar), just on a "brötchen" (kinda like a bun .. but made out of good and not so soft dough) with some freshly grounded black pepper, salt and raw onions.
Delicious!

 

[Paradigm]

Yep, onions.
Mett (or Tartar), just on a "brötchen" (kinda like a bun .. but made out of good and not so soft dough) with some freshly grounded black pepper, salt and raw onions.
Delicious!

But shaped like porcupines?????

 

[NedNickerson]

But shaped like porcupines?????

Porcupine? Is that what that is?
I thought it was a fish with scales.

 

[Corny]

That's just the way of "presenting" it. A "mettigel" kinda 70s stuff though. You pick it from there with your knife and smear it across your brötchen.