Danish Beef Tartare on Toast
A classic Danish patty of ground beef on toasted white bread, topped with a raw egg yolk and a garnish of capers, onion, beets, and horseradish.
The garnish is prepared first, then the bread is toasted and the patties are pan-fried, before resting briefly and being plated with the raw egg yolk. Serve immediately, so the crisp bread still supports the warm meat. The key is to cook the patties all the way through without pressing the juices out of them.
Ingredients
The Patties
- 700 g ground beef, 8-12% fat
- 30 g butter
- salt
- pepper, freshly ground
The Bread
- 4 slice white bread, thick slices, preferably a day old
- 20 g butter, salted
Garnish
- 4 egg yolks, very fresh
- 2 tbsp capers, drained
- 1 onion
- 150 g pickled beets, drained
- 5 cm fresh horseradish, peeled
How to make it
- Finely chop the onion, and cut the drained beets into small cubes about the size of the capers. Finely grate the horseradish on a grater. Place the four garnishes — onion, diced beets, horseradish, and the drained capers — in their own small bowls, so they don't bleed color into each other before serving.
- Divide the ground beef into four equal portions, and shape each into a flat patty about the size of the bread slices and roughly 2 cm thick. Press the meat together only enough for the patty to just hold its shape, as overworked meat turns tough. Season the patties with salt and freshly ground pepper on both sides right before frying, since salting too early draws the juices out of the meat.Chef's tip Handle the mince with cupped hands and stop the moment the patty holds together; if it starts to feel sticky and smeared against your palms, the fat is warming and smearing, which gives a dense, springy bite instead of a loose, tender one.
- Melt the salted butter in a large skillet over medium heat, and toast the bread slices for 5 minutes, turning once, until golden and crisp at the edges but still soft in the middle. The bread gets its salt from the butter, so it doesn't taste flat under the meat. Set the slices aside.Chef's tip Keep the heat low enough that the butter foams and smells nutty — if the skillet gets too hot, the milk proteins burn black and bitter long before the bread turns golden.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high, and melt the butter for the patties in the skillet. Fry the patties, turning once, and lift them out the moment they're cooked through, while the butter is still golden. They're done when the crust is deep golden and the meat is cooked through all the way with no pink center (internal temperature 75°C). Pariserbøf is classically served pink, but ground meat must be cooked through for food safety — the controlled heat and the resting afterward still keep it juicy.
- Let the patties rest for 3 minutes on a warm platter, until the surface stops sizzling, so the meat juices redistribute instead of running out into the bread. ⏱ 3 min · passive
- Place a patty on each of the toasted bread slices on a flat plate. Press a small indentation in the center of the meat with the back of a spoon, and let an egg yolk slide down into the indentation, so the yolk sits whole and glossy without breaking. Arrange capers, chopped onion, diced beets, and grated horseradish in four separate piles around the patty.Chef's tip Crack the eggs into a small bowl first and let the yolk slide from there. Sharp shell edges are what most often break the membrane, and once a yolk has run there's no saving it on the plate.
- Carry the plates to the table right away, and let guests stir the egg yolk and garnishes into the warm meat with their knife before digging in — that's how pariserbøf comes together into one flavor.
