What is tartar: sauce and a dish of French cuisine?

Quite a few words of the Russian language have several meanings. This is not an exception! What is tartar? In fact, if the word is written with a capital letter (and the stress is on the first syllable), then Tartarus is a place where, according to Greek mythology, Zeus overthrew the Titans and Kronos. There, according to Hesiod, there were cyclops. But in cooking, another meaning of the word "tartar" (with emphasis on the last syllable) is used - the name of the French sauce and the corresponding dish. About this and we will tell more in detail in our article.

French cuisine: what is tartar?

And here, without some confusion, it does not do, since the given word denotes several variants of dishes. Superiority - for a specific sauce, for fish dishes in the main. And in due course the name is fixed also for a raw beef steak and other dishes prepared according to similar technologies.

Sauce: a bit of history

What is tartar? It can be attributed to the traditional sauces of the national cuisine of France. The title clearly traces the Tatar roots from the hand of Louis the 9th, who saw the connection of the warlike Tatars with the ancient hell. But the French cook, of course, about the Tatars themselves had a rather vague idea. So, in those days it was believed that the favorite dishes of the Tatars - raw beef and lightly salted cucumbers. The French say that the name of the sauce itself appeared, to which cucumbers salted and capers were added. The sauce itself was a rather spicy seasoning. A dish with an exotic name was gaining popularity, spreading around the world.

How to make tartar (sauce)

By its consistency, it looks like mayonnaise, so many people think that this seasoning is prepared on a mayonnaise basis, to which are added pickled cucumbers, finely chopped. But this perception is not entirely true. Of course, the sauce is made from egg yolks, but they are used in a cooked form. What is tartar (sauce) in its classical version of cooking? We divide the boiled eggs into squirrels and yolks. The latter is carefully rubbed with salt, pouring a thin trickle of vegetable oil (in the traditional French recipe - olive), 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 consistency. Some add a drop of mustard. You can, of course, prepare tartar and using a blender, but all the relish and originality of the classical tartar in its heterogeneity. So all processes are best done manually. The sauce is perfectly combined with fish dishes and seafood, fried potatoes, some meat dishes.

Bee Tartar

This dish is quite simple to prepare, but not everyone will like it, as it is done on the basis of raw meat. We turn beef to minced meat, mixing with seasonings and salt. We form from a mince a small hill with a container at the top, where it is necessary to break a raw egg so that the yolk retains its shape. Eat a beef tartar with various spicy sauces (by the way, you can serve the sauce of the same name with cucumbers and yolks). And a similar dish is prepared from fish and seafood.