In Poland, steak tartare (raw ground beef with raw egg yolk, onion, fermented cucumber, pickled mushrooms, salt and pepper) has always been massively popular.
In the 90s and 00s, raw yolk was optional due to "popularity" of salmonella. Raw beef meat was somehow still acceptable.
I have never seen a pork version but here in Czech Republic they generally have beef steak tartare (tatarák) on topinka - bread that has been fried in oil. Often people rub garlic onto the bread before adding meat to it.
Fermented cucumber? Interesting, down here in Slovakia it's similar recipe only with pickled cucumber (and without mushrooms). Also some people add ketchup and a drop of worcester sauce.
I've seen the terms pickling and fermenting used interchangeably so to explain:
By fermentation of cucumbers and most non-starchy veggies, I mean lacto-fermentation with just veggies and brine (salty water). They become acidy over time as lactic acid bacteria do their magic and create a probiotic. Sauerkraut or kimchi are examples of fermented white cabbage and napa.
Pickling involves using acid such as vinegar from the beginning.
In the anglophone West, most pickled products contain vinegar, even when they're labelled "kosher style", so it's simply the only term that many people are familiar with. In US, some aren't even aware that you can ferment veggies in brine.
Sure. My point is simply people can be referring to lacto-fermented cucumbers without realising it. The vinegar is often added for shelf stabilisation of fermented cukes is my understanding.
Yeah, I know the difference as we also ferment cucumbers, in the (Slovak) tartar recipe it's always pickled (in vinegar, dill etc).
Also (napa) kimchi is something of an outlier to your rule of just veggies and brine, because the napa cabbage does not contain a lot of starch, rice flour (starch) and in some recipes sugar is added to aid the fermentation. This is not needed for the sauerkraut/kysla kapusta/kapusta kwaszona as it naturally contains enough sugars for the fermenting bacteria to feast on. But this is just me being pedantic, sorry.
Fermented tastes way better imo. My aunt makes sun fermented cucumbers with horseradish and chilies. Yummy! She washes them with hot water two times and then puts them in brine.
Italy, France, Switzerland - beef tartar is also popular and omni-present.
It is also very good. Coming from a country where tartar doesn't exist it took an effort to decide and try it the first time, but if you are OK with medium rare steaks, the taste is similar and the texture is that of a rare burger (the meat is chopped up into tiny pieces). Seasoning and condiments take it to the next level, so it's absolutely not like biting off a raw steak or chewing on a spoonful of ground meat :)
In the 90s and 00s, raw yolk was optional due to "popularity" of salmonella. Raw beef meat was somehow still acceptable.