The Russians adopted the dish with just beef under the name steak tartare and gradually added chopped onions and egg to the beef. The tartare method had also reached China where Marco Polo encountered it for beef and other foods. German sailors, especially from Hamburg, encountered the dish on trading missions in Russia. They brought the dish back to Germany where steak tartare became known as tartare steak. It also gained the alternate name of Hamburg steak which became popular amongst the working class. German immigrants brought the dish to the US in the late 18th and early 19th century where it became known as a hamburger. This dish was not served in bread or buns until the 1880's or 1890's.
The tartare method of food preparation declined the 20th century due to widespread use of antibiotics and factory farming, which increase the possibility of contracting a bacterial infection.[citation needed] However, the hamburger became one of the world's most popular dishes by the end of the 20th century.
In the early 21st century, tartare preparations have begun to re-appear on the menus of high-end restaurants. Especially popular are preparations with fish, often tuna, as an early course.
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