StarterAI

Steak Tartare

Name: Steak Tartare
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 500 g Sirloin steaks; 40 g Red onion; 20 g Capers; 30 g Cornichons (small pickled gherkins); 10 g Flat-leaf parsley; 15 g Dijon mustard; 10 ml Worcestershire sauce; 15 ml Extra-virgin olive oil; 4 g Fine sea salt; 2 g Ground black pepper; 2 large Eggs

Hand-chopped raw beef mixed with capers, cornichons, mustard and Worcestershire sauce, mounded into a nest with a raw egg yolk on top — the dish that made a knife's edge as important as any heat source.

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 0 min
Difficulty: Intermediate

About this dish

Steak tartare's name points to the Tatars, though the connection is almost certainly invented — a nineteenth-century French kitchen's way of giving raw chopped beef a flavour of exotic origin rather than a documented history. What is genuinely true is the technique: the beef is chopped by hand with a knife, never run through a grinder, because a grinder crushes and warms the meat along fault lines that change its texture, while a knife just separates it. The egg yolk on top isn't decoration — stirred in at the table, it's what turns a pile of seasoned raw beef into a sauce that coats every bite.

Gluten-free
Lactose-free
Not vegetarian because of Sirloin steaks, Worcestershire sauce

Ingredients

4servings

500gSirloin steaks
40gRed onion
20gCapers
30gCornichons (small pickled gherkins)
10gFlat-leaf parsley
15gDijon mustard
10mlWorcestershire sauce
15mlExtra-virgin olive oil
4gFine sea salt
2gGround black pepper
2largeEggs

Instructions

Chop the beef by hand into very fine, even pieces using a sharp knife.
15 min
Tip: Chill the beef hard in the freezer for 15 minutes before you start — half-frozen meat holds its shape under the knife instead of squashing, which is the difference between a fine dice and a paste.
Finely chop the red onion, capers, cornichons and parsley.
10 min
Tip: Chop these at least as fine as the beef — a chunk of onion in an otherwise silky tartare stands out as a mistake, not a texture.
Gently mix the beef with the chopped ingredients, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, salt and pepper.
5 min
Tip: Mix with a light hand and a fork, not a spoon pressed down hard — overworking raw beef turns it dense and pasty instead of leaving it loose and tender.
Divide into mounds and press a shallow well into the top of each.
5 min
Tip: Shape it just before serving, not ahead of time — tartare loses its texture and starts weeping liquid if it sits mounded for long.
Top each mound with a raw egg yolk just before bringing it to the table.
2 min
Tip: Serve immediately and stir the yolk in at the table, in front of whoever's eating it — that moment of mixing is most of the point of serving it this way rather than already combined.