SMZ: Steak tartare was the rage in Paris from the middle of the 1970s on until the mad cow disease from Britain considerably slowed down the consumption of beef in Europe. It is now advised to order steak tartare only in reliable restaurants and inspect the meat and the egg to check whether they are fresh. This of course won't tell you if they are infected by salmonella. I don't think salmonella was ever a big issue here as hygiene in restaurant kitchens is fairly satisfactory, and as veterinary services are quite efficient. This doesn't mean that one shouldn't be careful for, every year, food inspectors close down some restaurants for insufficient hygiene and produces past peremption date. A lot of Arabs and Chinese restaurants had to adopt hygienic habits to survive. Now many Chinese are posing as Japanese and serve raw fish. A recent enquiry that was published a couple of weeks ago has revealed that only a handful of these restaurants are reliable. [I guess several forumites will drag me on hot coals for naming these various nationalities. :lol: ]
Independently from the steak tartare there is a sauce, among many others, that can accompany roasted or cold meats that is called sauce tartare « Tartar sauce ». The recipe is very simple: 200ml of mayonnaise 1 teaspoonful of minced capers 2 minced gerkins 1 teaspoonful of chives 1 soupspoonful of thick cream Mix well and add all the other ingredients you like.
Independently from the steak tartare there is a sauce, among many others, that can accompany roasted or cold meats that is called sauce tartare "tartar sauce". The recipe is very simple: 200ml of mayonnaise 1 teaspoonful of minced capers 2 minced gerkins 1 teaspoonful of chives 1 soupspoonful of thick cream Mix well and add all the other ingredients you like.
I must qualify what I said the other day about the meaning of Tartare / tartare in French. Not only was it used to refer to the Manchus when they occupied China, as I already said, but also to the Mongols in so far as André DE LONGJUMEAU uses about them. He was a Dominican monk sent in 1249 by the Pope and King Louis IX (Saint Louis) as their ambassador to the Khan's court that had put up its tents then near Karakorum. In other words, these terms were always used to refer to Mongols and Manchus. Sorry
