Skip to main content
steak tartare

steak tartare

3 7.6
A cold dish of finely chopped raw beef with seasonings and a raw egg yolk
  • noun
  • /steɪk tɑːrˈtɑːr/
translation icon : tartar de carne
  • I had the steak tartare, the egg, the scallions, the capers, the whole shebang.
  • order steak tartare

Examples

  • Nevertheless, for the sake of my guests' equanimity, I forgo the egg and serve the steak tartare as an appetizer.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Did you ever go to a French restaurant and have steak tartare?

    Blog text (16)
  • I ordered you a steak tartare.

  • Hey, try the steak tartare.

  • I haven't had steak tartare in a long time.

  • Steak tartare is not everybody's cup of tea.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • We follow their glances to Andy, greedily licking the last bits of steak tartare off his plate.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • At the restaurant, I decided to try the steak tartare, which was served with a fresh egg yolk.

  • For my birthday dinner, we ordered steak tartare as an appetizer to share with the table.

  • Many diners enjoy steak tartare because it highlights the quality of the raw beef used.

Synonyms

tartare
vssteak tartare
11 6.7

A cold dish of chopped raw meat like beef or salmon served with sauce

is narrower, referring chiefly to the beef version with raw yolk and capers
tartar steak
vssteak tartare
9.5

Raw ground beef mixed with raw egg and onions or capers served uncooked

is the form usually served with raw yolk, onions, capers, and seasonings
cannibal mound
vssteak tartare
  • US
9.9

A dish of raw ground beef mixed with raw egg and onion, eaten raw

is similar but the standard recipe focuses on yolk and specific condiments

Surface Forms

steak tartare singular

Morphology

steak + tartare

The meaning is directly compositional: 'steak' (a cut of beef) modified by 'tartare' (a raw-meat preparation), so together they denote a steak prepared in the tartare style (finely chopped/seasoned raw beef). This pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically recognizable (the term is widely borrowed from French), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the dish's meaning.

Etymology

Steak tartare may come from a story about the Tatar horsemen. One popular story says they ate meat 'raw' and sometimes softened it under their saddles, so the word tartare became linked to meat eaten 'raw' and steak tartare now names a dish of chopped 'raw beef'.