Tartar

The Tartars, a huge army of warriors led by Ghengis Khan in the thirteenth century, were renowned for being rather rambunctious, perhaps even boisterous. Since they passed most of their days pillaging, marauding, and wreaking havoc, they did not have much time to descant upon the gastronomic arts, and yet they did hit upon one culinary innovation, namely, the practice of placing a raw chunk of meat under a saddle so that after a long day’s ride it would be tender and salty. During the Middle Ages, reports of this outlandish method of preparing meat reached Germany, prompting cooks to bestow the name tartar on a dish made by seasoning raw, minced meat with pepper, onion, and salt. In France, this dish became steak a la tartare, and a similarly seasoned mayonnaise became known as sauce tartare. English adopted sauce tartare as tartar sauce in the mid nineteenth century, and borrowed the French name of the meat dish as steak tartar in the first decade of the twentieth century. Incidentally, the original form of the Tartars’ name was Tatar, but their antisocial behaviour caused their neighbours to associate them with Tartarus, the hell of ancient Greek mythology and thus a second r was mistakenly added to their name. The tartar that dentists scrape off your teeth derives its name from a different source, specifically from the Medieval Latin tartarum, the name of a crusty substance that forms on the inside surface of wine casks. When purified, this by-product of wine becomes cream of tartar, used in baking.

A hard deposit of calcium which forms on teeth, and has to be removed by scaling.

Hard deposit that forms on the teeth and gums.

The calcified bacterial plaque that forms from mineral salts in the saliva and accumulates on and adheres to the surfaces of the crowns and roots of the teeth.

The calcareous deposit that forms on the teeth.

Material that forms on the teeth near the margin of the gum, consisting chiefly of phosphate of lime deposited from saliva mixed with food particles an ideal medium for bacteria to flourish in. Regular brushing of the teeth is a preventive measure. Dentists or dental hygienists routinely remove tartar, because it gives rise to wasting of the gums and loosening of the teeth.

Finely minced, uncooked beef blended with a medley of pungent onions, flavorful seasonings, and on occasion, a raw egg, resulting in a velvety-textured composition, is commonly referred to as steak tartare. This particular preparation is typically utilized as a savory sandwich spread or an appetizing prelude to a meal.