Different from what the name suggests, this is a very typical dutch sandwich spread. I know that in France and Belgium they mean something else with “filet américain”, something the rest of the world calls “steak tartare”, but I’m dutch and this is what dutch people call filet américain. When I was young this was a luxurious treat for special days, nowadays it’s a cheap, day-to-day spread from the supermarket. Their recipe “degraded” so much over the years I decided to start making my own. After all, it’s dead simple, anybody with a blender can do it. I like it with finely chopped raw onions on top and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Spread on a sandwich or going back to the seventies and spread it on some celery sticks!
RECIPE
225 gr lean beef
3 T Kewpie mayonnaise
2 t mustard
1 t paprika powder
½ t salt
½ t ground black pepper
⅛ t curry powder
pinch of cayenne-pepper
10 drops of Worcestershire sauce
Dice the beef and add with all other ingredients to your blender. Blend for quite some time, it really has to become a smooth paste. Taste it and see if you need to add some more spices or salt. Eat the same day, I wouldn’t keep it for longer than 24 hours. Refrigerated of course.
Any lean beef will do. You just don’t want any strings of fat in it because that won’t blend. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive cut, flank steak (bavette) will do just fine. I recommend Kewpie mayonnaise because it’s nice and sour. You can use raw egg yolks instead or a sweeter brand of mayonnaise, but then you might want to add some lemonjuice or vinegar. I use wholegrain mustard from Limburg and “Kerry Djawa” currypowder.
Tags: dutch, Filet Américain, hollandse Filet Américain, sandwich spread
December 19, 2010 at 14:19 |
My all time favorite in Holland, now with this recipe I can make it at home in the USA.
December 19, 2010 at 14:40 |
Let me know how it turned out. And whether you dare to serve it to American friends and what their reaction is. :-)
December 20, 2010 at 3:09 |
I make Filet American quite often, although a different recipe. It is real good it’s harder to serve American friends, but most of them really enjoy it. And by the way it is like eaten steak tartare. What I do different for my recipe is that I prefer to ground the beef fine and stir in the rest of the ingredients. And the better qualiti of the beef the nicer the texture. Last I tried beef eye round that was good.
December 20, 2010 at 11:49 |
I’ll try adding the rest of the ingredients in the end next time.
I think when you use this kitchen machine, like I do, it doesn’t make much difference which cut of beef you use. But if you grind it in a meat grinder or just don’t grind it too much, it definitely does make a difference.
What’s your recipe? Egg or mayo? Paprika or not? Just curious.
March 20, 2011 at 5:23 |
Hi Robin, My Dutch treat (husband) Ad has been pining for this, over here in Australia. Just wanted to check a detail with you. The capital “T” = tablespoon, and little “t” = teaspoon? is that right? Cheers, Sandy
March 20, 2011 at 6:37 |
Sorry! I came to this recipe through Flickr, and just checked your homepage and saw the explanation of T and t, so all is fine.
March 20, 2011 at 14:07 |
You weren’t the first to ask, it’s just that I really like the T and t, it visualized the quantities for me and never mix them up anymore like I did before with tbsp and tsp.
Hope Ad will enjoy the recipe. I can’t imagine he won’t. Good luck!
March 28, 2011 at 10:06 |
Hi I would like to know the amounts, they do not understand about T t, I’m Spanish but my husband is Dutch and I love the Filet americain, could explain ,this translation I’ve done it via google, I hope you understand.Hablas Dutch? ?
un saludo
March 28, 2011 at 14:34 |
1 T = tablespoon = eetlepel = cucharada = 15ml
1 t = teaspoon = theelepel = cucharadita = 5 ml
(I wrote it on the homepage, unfortunately it doesn’t show on single pages. I should try and change that setting because you’re not the only one who can’t figure it out. ;-) )
May 24, 2011 at 17:14 |
Thank you Robin,
I’m not Dutch but I used to live in Netherland for 15 years and moved to US about 13 years ago. I’m big fan of Filet Américain, every time I went back to Nederland I can eat Filet Américain whole day and now my son is 9 years old, after 3 time visited Nederland he fall in love with Filet Américain, he keep asking to go back to Holland to have “broodje Filet Américain”. But now i found you, I will try it to make it home and will let you know how it taste. But so far it look prettyyummy on the pictures.
Thanks Robin,
Kim from California USA
May 24, 2011 at 17:55 |
Cool! I hope the recipe will come close to your memories.
I’d like to hear how it turned out.
June 4, 2011 at 12:40 |
For the record in France, we call a steak tartare when it’s a steak in a plate which hasn’t been mixed yet, and you can add an egg, spices, oignons .. and do your own mixture. Whereas a filet américain is the same food and ingrédients already mixed and put in a sandwich. I didn’t knew the original Dutch’s version i’ll try it someday, looks tasty.
Antoine from Lille, (FR).
June 5, 2011 at 12:36 |
I’m curious to hear how you liked it. But somehow I expect you to prefer the french version. ;-)
September 19, 2011 at 21:33 |
Hello Robin!
I am making this for my Dutch husband as a surprise. He misses this more than anything (we now live in California).
Can you use ground beef for this recipe or should I get something better? I was assuming ground beef would be easy, but don’t want to do it wrong! Also, is the cayenne and curry optional or does that make the taste better? He can’t do spicy very well, but loves Filet Americain, so I want to make it awesome,
Thanks!
September 19, 2011 at 21:42 |
The cayenne and curry powder is hardly noticeable, so yeah, you can leave that out. I’ve heard of other people using ground beef, but I don’t think I would use that. Normally it’s too fatty. Just go and find the leanest piece of beef your butcher has on offer. It doesn’t have to be prime beef, just as lean as possible, with no white bits in it. Chop it and then blend it really well in your blender. It should become like a paste.
Good luck! Hope it works out for you.
December 30, 2011 at 3:33 |
Hi there.
We just tried this recipe
We used lean beef steak.
This tasted great it is just like i can remember.
Great.
thanks peter dunne
December 30, 2011 at 11:54 |
Cool! Thank you, I love feedback. :)