The Kitchen · Starters · Summer

Beef Tartare

Name: Beef Tartare
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Seasonal
Ingredients: 300 g beef filet or tenderloin, one whole piece; 3 small pickles, finely diced; 1 shallot, finely diced; 2 tsp dijon, a thick mustard seed one is best; 1 egg yolk; a little lemon, just a squeeze; a small handful of parsley, chopped; black pepper; 1 baguette, sliced and toasted

Serves 4 30 min

Drink: a brut Champagne, or a demi-sec sparkling if you lean sweet.

Before you start. A note before you start: this is raw beef and raw egg yolk, so make it at your own comfort level. Buy from a butcher you trust and tell them it is being eaten raw. Choose a whole piece of filet or tenderloin and cut it yourself, never anything pre-ground. Keep it cold right up to serving, dress it at the last minute, and skip this one if you are pregnant, cooking for young children or older adults, or anyone with a weakened immune system.

Beef tartare with toasted baguette in golden evening light

A small piece of good beef goes further here than you would think, so buy less than your instincts tell you. Everything else is chopping.

You will notice there is no salt and no oil in this. That is on purpose. The dijon and the pickles carry all the salinity it needs, and I like it clean.

Method

Put the beef in the freezer for 20 minutes until it is firm at the edges. Near-frozen beef cuts into clean dice; soft beef smears.
With your sharpest knife, slice the beef thin, then into strips, then into small, even dice. Keep it cold in a bowl set over ice if the kitchen is warm.
Fold in the pickles, shallot, dijon, parsley, a squeeze of lemon, and plenty of black pepper.
Taste. It should be bright and sharp from the pickles and mustard. Adjust the lemon and pepper, not with salt.
Mound onto a plate, make a small well, and set the egg yolk in it. Serve immediately with the toasted baguette.

Make it yours

Capers instead of pickles if that is what the fridge has, though I prefer the crunch of pickles.
A dash of hot sauce or Worcestershire folded in for a darker, rounder version.
Cornichons give the finest dice if your pickles run large.

Between us

The whole dish is a knife skills exercise. Take the freezer step seriously and the rest is easy.

Make the dice ahead if you must, but only dress it when everyone is at the table.

Enjoy your thyme.

While you cook

pull up a chair

When the season turns, I write you a letter.

One short note when the menu changes: what’s ripe, what I’m cooking, and a few things worth gathering people around. Nothing else.