Chopped Liver

Originally published January 26, 2016, but updated somewhat on 12-12-20 and some new photos 1-1-22

 

Perhaps you've heard the expression, "What am I, chopped liver?" It is used by someone who, rightly or wrongly, feels left out of a particular situation; that is, that they are important. Well, this is not about ruffled feathers or hurt feelings, so forget it! This is about the real chopped liver, a chicken liver specialty spread associated very strongly with Jewish culture and cuisine. The history of the dish is somewhat hazy, but it certainly seems to trace back to Jews living among Germans (especially in the Berlin area), Poles, Lithuanians, Russians and Ukrainians. Whether Jews picked up the dish from any of these cultures, or gifted it to these various peoples, is unknown to me. Like many recipes, there are variations to chopped liver, often regarding the addition of herbs or spices. This version is my own.

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken livers
1/2 cup schmaltz (chicken fat)* (you can substitute some regular olive oil or vegetable oil)**
1 medium onion, diced
3 large hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (certainly optional)
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons dry sherry (use real sherry, cooking sherry has added salt and less flavor)
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon paprika

In a skillet, heat and melt 2 tablespoons of chicken fat. Add the onions and cook until softened. Add the livers, the thyme, the sherry, the salt, the pepper, the cayenne pepper, and the rest of the chicken fat. Cook over medium low heat until the livers are softened, but not completely darkened and dry. Naturally, no remaining blood from the livers should be present. Remove from the heat and empty the contents onto a large platter or board. Use a good large knife to chop the livers and mixture to a coarse level. Add and mix in the chopped eggs. Put everything into a dish and sprinkle the top with parsley and paprika, then cover and place in the refrigerator for several hours. Great spread on rye or pumpernickel bread, or as a sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise, or perhaps mustard, which might be a bit too strong for such a sandwich, but if you like mustard, go for it.

As for some of the variations, some brown the onions, some add marjoram, some add Madeira or other types of wine, some add brandy, some add crunchy browned bits of chicken fat left over from making schmaltz, some do not mix in the chopped egg, but rather prefer to sprinkle it on top, many do not use cayenne pepper. In more modern times, food processors are used by many, I'm sure, and some undoubtedly make it very smooth, so make it as you feel you want it, and I'm pretty sure Golda Meir's ghost won't pay you a visit ... ahh, "Hi there Golda! What ya been up to? What's this, because of my remarks, you're going to serve everybody else lunch, but not me? What am I, chopped liver?"

* "Schmaltz" is the Yiddish spelling of German "Schmalz" (fat, grease). I assume English tends to use the Yiddish spelling, as it was originally borrowed and spread through English from Yiddish sources. Yiddish, which literally means "Jewish," is a Germanic language that developed about a thousand or more years ago, seemingly in the Rhineland area of Germany. It was based upon the High German dialect of that area, with elements from various German dialects, Hebrew, Slavic, and some Latin-based languages, like Rumanian. It was initially referred to as "taytsh/taytsch" (which meant "German," compared to Middle High German "tiutsch" and modern German "Deutsch"). As Jews moved across eastern Europe, they took this language along, thus picking up those various other characteristics from Slavic and Rumanian over time. It seems the term "Yiddish" wasn't really applied to the language until the 1700s. It is still spoken today, even in the United States, principally in New York City.

 

** I've made chopped liver with a mixture of olive oil, a little chicken fat and a little butter, and it's pretty good. The thing to remember is, specialty ethnic foods from various cultures are often based upon tradition, and traditional chopped liver is made with schmaltz. 

 

 

Chopped liver with toast and some cornichons ...

 

 

WORD HISTORY:
Spread-This word goes back to Indo European "sper-id," which had the notion of "strew, toss about." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "spreidijanan," which meant "to spread about." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sprædan," meaning "to stretch forth, spread out." This then became "spreden," before the modern version. The noun was derived from the verb in the early 1600s. The other Germanic languages have: German "spreiten," Low German Saxon "spreden," Frisian "spriedjen" (seems archaic, although perhaps still dialectal), Dutch "spreiden," Danish "sprede," Norwegian "spre," and Swedish "sprida." NOTE: The North Germanic branch, represented here by Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, "may" have borrowed the word from Low German; at least that is the belief of some, and the fact that there is no form of "spread" in Icelandic gives some support to that idea, although a form could simply have died out in Icelandic.