At Nove in Eltingville, filet mignon tartare-style includes red onion, Worcestershire sauce, capers, lemon juice, egg yolk, sea salt, mustard, anchovy, parsley and mayo.Janice Blanchard of West Brighton recalls as a child how her Dad brought home chopped meat from Trunz in Great Kills. Her mother would then smooth the raw beef over buttered bread. That package of raw beef proved to be a delicacy in the house.
Indeed, that’s seriously good stuff by some foodies’ standards. Tartare steak, built from beef or venison, is a rather elegant dish that is easy to prepare at home. When crafted properly from fresh ingredients, it is nothing to fear eating. Ingredients such as anchovy, prepared mustard (which has vinegar in it), Worcestershire sauce (which has both anchovy and vinegar), salt, lemon juice and capers create a briny and/or acidic environment thereby hindering bacteria growth. By the way, vinegar (a base) and lemon juice (an acid) macerates or "cooks" food.
So, how can the dish be prepared in a safe manner?
Pasteurized hen eggs in a tartare steak help avoid the chance of getting salmonella poisoning. However, salt and acidity added to raw protein reduces, but does not eliminate, the potential for food borne illness.
Chefs like Carol Frazzetta of Carol’s Cafe in Dongan Hills and Mario Gentile of Nove Italian Bistro in Eltingville do not put the meat through a grinder. Instead, they trim a cut like filet mignon as this removes bacteria from the surface. Then, they give a little chop-chop action with one or, as in Ms. Frazzetta’s kitchen, simultaneously two very sharp knives. The result is finely minced bits of perfectly raw meat.
Executive chef Marcus Jernmark serves two versions of tartare beef at Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit in Manhattan. On the regular dinner menu, it is called Creek Stone Farm Steak Tartar.
"It is the steak from a prime strip loin," Jernmark explains through spokesperson Marisa Jetter. Jernmark preps it with finely diced celery, Vidalia onion, salsify and nasturtium (a peppery-tasting pansy) emulsion in the tatare. He spreads paddlefish caviar over the top.
"Paddlefish is a type of sturgeon that has a buttery flavor profile that works great with steak," the chef notes.
At lunch, Aquavit changes the plating. The tatare mixture remains the same but instead comes encircled with pickled beets, horseradish, chopped red onion, Swedish mustard, smoked egg yolk and capers. At one point in the restaurant’s history, Jernmark made the entree with venison.
But try to find that classic beef tradition as a staple on a Staten Island restaurant menu — there’s no such animal.
Gourmands at Carol’s Cafe and Nove give the restaurant a heads up at least a day before ordering the dish. Yet Gentile says that with the raw beef and egg components, there’s not much call for it.
For the occasional presentation of it at Nove, Gentile or a waiter combine ingredients for patrons tableside with two wooden spoons: Metal reacts with acids like lemon juice, Gentile says. Meat is kept as chilled as possible which is why the dish is mixed in a bowl placed on top of crushed ice.
"As far as Steak Tartare, my customers call a day in advance and I then prepare it fresh for them," says Ms. Frazzetta, who says her older customers are the ones who usually request it. She preps the ingredients in the kitchen and offers components to the guest. The beef is mounded on a plate topped with an egg yolk cupped in half an egg shell.
"Guests spoon on their own minced onions and capers as they heap their portions onto squares of buttered rye or pumpernickel bread or a fine-quality white bread," she explains.
FOOD HISTORY
Pasteurized eggs eliminate the chance of getting salmonella. Filet mignon should be chopped with a knife, not ground.There is no clear point in food history where and when tartare steak originated, which particular chef had the wherewithal of eating or serving a plate of raw meat. But the stories behind it are worth mentioning. The dish was served in France in the early 1900s, billed on the menu as "boeuf a l’Americaine," and served with tartar sauce. Tartar sauce, an emulsion of egg yolk and oil with seasonings such as capers or pickles, may nod to the primitive nature of the raw meal with a reference to the prehistoric Tatars (or Tartars) of Asia. (And perhaps the French considered the Americas barbaric.)
In the early 1920s, the dish was not served with raw egg. Yet by standards of cookbooks in the late 30s and later, the raw egg component was broken out of the tartar sauce. And now, with a pristine egg yolk to accompany in some capacity, tartare steak becomes the simple and beautiful dish that it is.
Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
TARTARE STEAK
(Makes 2 servings)
8 ounces Filet Mignon
1 fresh egg yolk in the half-shell
2 tablespoons finely minced red onion
1 tablespoon Dijon-style-style prepared mustard
2 to 4 best quality anchovies, optional
1 to 2 tablespoons capers
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Accouterments to be passed separately:
Worcestershire sauce
Fresh grated Horseradish, optional
Hot Pepper Sauce, like Sambal or Tabasco
Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Finely chopped boiled egg, whites and yolks separate
Tiny pickles
When all the ingredients are ready, chop meat with 2 very sharp knives.
Mound the beef on a plate, topping it with an egg yolk cupped in the half-shell. Surround with small piles or ramekins of onion, mustard, onion, optional anchovies, caper and parsley. Present on a carefully arranged platter.
Serve accouterments on the side.
— Executive chef Carol Frazzetta, Carol's Cuisine, Dongan Hills