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10-25-2009, 07:54 AM
|  | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Retired Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,718
| |  Steak Tartare?
If you do it in the restaurant, how do you do Steak Tartare? Grind it per order? |
10-25-2009, 09:45 AM
|  | Registered User Culinary Experience: Professional Chef | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: USA
Posts: 347
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The times I have done it the meat was chopped to order and not ground.
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10-25-2009, 01:55 PM
|  | Registered User Culinary Experience: Professional Chef | | Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Cary, N.C.
Posts: 77
| | Steak Tartare
To me, it's like Lomi-Lomi salad in Hawaii, cubed bits of tuna with an acid and savories.
I've always prepared Steak Tartare cut into cubes. Ground beef is a little too reminiscent of hamburger to Americans. Classic French would dictate ground beef, though.
Most importantly, I hope you have a great, local beef purveyor. Please don't try to do steak tartare from Sysco or US Foods distributors. That's like trying to make sushi from frozen talapia.
While the estimates of Mad Cow disease in the UK were supposed to reach 500,000 people dying, actually only 156 people succumbed to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). It's still a major concern, as is the health and quality of all our food stocks. If you're messing with uncooked food, beef or not, protect yourself and your business by buying the best product available.
I'd make a production estimate of the number of Steak Tartare's ordered for the night, prep and chill. If you decide to cut or grind per order, you'll need to be aware of potential cross-contamination. Your appetizers guy will need a sterile area where raw beef on a cutting board from two hours ago isn't the same for chopping salad.
Locally, we have to submit our menus to the health department. Saying that we're serving Tartare to order would definately have them crawling all over me, examining potentials for cross.
It's a great upscale dish, though. I've found it's an excellent marketing element on a menu, even if you never serve it. There are many instances of items on menus just to make other items look better. You'll probably sell more Chicken Cordon Bleu if you have Steak Tartare on the menu because you LOOK more like an authentic French restaurant. |
10-25-2009, 05:09 PM
|  | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Professional Chef | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Fond du Lac, WI
Posts: 3,271
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Quote: |
While the estimates of Mad Cow disease in the UK were supposed to reach 500,000 people dying, actually only 156 people succumbed to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). It's still a major concern, as is the health and quality of all our food stocks. If you're messing with uncooked food, beef or not, protect yourself and your business by buying the best product available.
| While this last statement is very informative, I think it is slightly misleading in what it conveys to the public. I think one point needs to be clarified. Since this post is about tartar (raw beef) I am afraid that people might be led to believe that cooking meat containing BSE would be safe. This is not so. Once beef has been contaminated with BSE no amount of cooking will make it safe again. That's one of the insidious issues with Mad Cow disease. |
10-25-2009, 06:03 PM
| | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Retired Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,718
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChefToddMohr  It's a great upscale dish, though. I've found it's an excellent marketing element on a menu, even if you never serve it. There are many instances of items on menus just to make other items look better. You'll probably sell more Chicken Cordon Bleu if you have Steak Tartare on the menu because you LOOK more like an authentic French restaurant. | Same goes for escargot I guess.  |
10-25-2009, 06:27 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: Professional Chef | | Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 53
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Grind to order, and it will weed pantry every single time lol |
10-25-2009, 06:57 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 204
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete While this last statement is very informative, I think it is slightly misleading in what it conveys to the public. I think one point needs to be clarified. Since this post is about tartar (raw beef) I am afraid that people might be led to believe that cooking meat containing BSE would be safe. This is not so. Once beef has been contaminated with BSE no amount of cooking will make it safe again. That's one of the insidious issues with Mad Cow disease. | The yearly death rate can also be misleading since the disease can often take years to manifest.
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10-25-2009, 10:29 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: Line Cook | | Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 10
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grind a few orders before service. . . use sirloin tips and tails ( if you break down from primal cuts, WHICH YOU SHOULD). Steak Tartar is great stuff, serve it with pickles horseradish, jalopenos, olives, or anything with a salted flavor like a pickled item. Throw a shot of cognac on top with an egg yolk and you got love on a plate.
The amount you'll prep before service if obviously dependent on volume, but it should be obvious after a couple of weeks. | |
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