Tartare should be beaten with a knife Beating tartare with a knife is no accident, quite the contrary. The difference between a knife-beaten tartare and one prepared with a meat grinder jumps immediately to the eye and especially to the palate. An excellent tartare is made from raw meat and should be served fresh, not cold. If, in fact, it were cold in the refrigerator, we could not taste the flavors of the seasonings and meat when it is fresh. The ideal temperature is around 12 to 15 degrees. Cutting and beating meat with a knife and not with a meat grinder preserves its nutritional and organoleptic properties intact. If, on the other hand, the meat is minced, it gets hot and the flavor suffers. The result is a kind of “crushed meatball” with a taste not comparable to authentic tartare. Another crucial aspect to pay attention to, in order to distinguish a knife-beaten tartare from a minced one, is the texture of the meat on tasting. In tartare, it is crucial to achieve a balance between the flavor of the meat and that of the seasonings. And, again, the quality of the raw material is what makes the difference. The meat for tartare must be tender, lean, and flavorful. With knife-beaten tartare, the chunks of meat remain coarser and we have to chew them well in order to swallow them. In this way, we can also feel the other ingredients well under our teeth: we feel all the flavors that enrich the taste of the meat.