The Tartars are a Turkic ethnic group with a rich history between Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Despite sharing the same name, they did not originally create tartar sauce.

The first to come up with this tangy sauce live further west in France. However, there might be a subtle connection between tartar sauce and the Tartar people, after all.

The link is hidden in the history of the very dish that tartar sauce was originally meant to be paired with, steak tartare. It was a way to add acidity to the once-bland dish.

Steak tartare's name really did come from the Tartar people, explained by Patricia Bunning Stevens in her 1988 book, "Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes."

Stevens retold a story that attributed the name of the dish to the Tartar warriors who were part of Genghis Khan's formidable military. However, this is likely just a story.

The narrative likely stems from Jean de Joinville, a 13th-century French historian and writer, who painted an unflattering caricature of the Tartars, describing them as "barbaric."

The name "tartare" is still linked to the Tartars in most cookbooks and food history encyclopedias today, but keep in mind that it's based on a pretty offensive stereotype.