What is tartare: a sauce and a French dish?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Quite a few Russian words have multiple meanings. This one is no exception! What is tartare? In fact, if the word is capitalized (and the emphasis is on the first syllable), then Tartarus is the place where, according to Greek mythology, Zeus cast down the titans and Kronos. There, according to Hesiod, were the Cyclopes. But in cooking, a different meaning of the word "tartare" is used (with an emphasis on the last syllable) - the name of the French sauce and the corresponding dish. We will talk about this in more detail in our article.

French cuisine: what is tartare?

And here, too, there is some confusion, since this word denotes several options for dishes. Superiority - for a specific sauce, mainly for fish dishes. And over time, the name is assigned to raw beef steak and other dishes prepared using similar technologies.

Sauce: a bit of history

What is tartare? It can be attributed to the traditional sauces of the national cuisine of France. The title clearly showsTatar roots from the hand of Louis the 9th, who saw the connection of the warlike Tatars with the ancient hell. But French chefs, of course, had a rather vague idea about the Tatars themselves. So, in those days it was believed that the favorite dishes of the Tatars were raw beef and lightly s alted cucumbers. The French say that this is how the name of the sauce itself arose, to which pickled cucumbers and capers were added. The sauce itself was quite spicy. And a dish with an exotic name was gaining popularity, spreading around the world.

How to make tartare (sauce)

It looks like mayonnaise in consistency, so many people think that this seasoning is prepared on a mayonnaise basis, to which finely chopped pickles are added. But this perception is not entirely correct. Of course, the sauce is made from egg yolks, but they are used boiled. What is tartare (sauce) in its classic version of preparation? Divide boiled eggs into whites and yolks. The latter are carefully rubbed with s alt, pouring vegetable oil in a thin stream (in the traditional French recipe - olive oil), adding lemon juice and ground pepper. Finely chopped green onions, garlic, pickled cucumbers, capers (sometimes olives) are added at the last stage, when the whipped sauce has already acquired a delicate texture. Some people add a dash of mustard. You can, of course, cook tartare with a blender, but the whole relish and originality of the classic tartare is in its heterogeneity. So all processes are best done manually. The sauce is finegoes well with fish and seafood dishes, fried potatoes, some meat dishes.

Beef tartare

This dish is quite easy to prepare, but not everyone will like it, as it is based on raw meat. We twist the beef into minced meat, mixing with seasonings and s alt. We form a small hill from minced meat with a container at the top, where it is necessary to break a raw egg so that the yolk retains its shape. They eat beef tartare with various spicy sauces (by the way, you can also serve the sauce of the same name from cucumbers and yolks). And a similar dish is prepared from fish and seafood.