There's nothing that says "Jewish Holiday!" to me more than a big bowl of chopped liver. While not particularly traditional to Hanukkah, it frequently makes an appearance at my family celebrations. My mom still talks about the version that her Auntie Tunkel used to make, in an old wooden chopping bowl with a red-handled chopper. Sadly, Auntie died in 1957 and no one wrote the recipe down while she was alive so I'll never know how hers tasted.
However, I have filled my own need for chopped liver with a recipe I found in the Washington Post in March of 2004. They were doing a series of recipes for Passover and printed Aron Groer's Chopped Liver. I don't remember who Aron Groer was, but he makes some good chopped liver. It isn't exactly like Auntie's, she used schmaltz (chicken fat) and raw onions, but it makes for some fine eating. Aron Groer's Chopped Liver
1 pound chicken livers
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1 pound yellow onions, cut into a 1/2 inch dice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 hardboiled and peeled eggs
Wash and clean the livers. Heat a skillet over medium and pour in the oil. Add the onions, cover and cook them, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and golden. This takes about ten minutes.
Add the whole livers to the skillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer gently until just cooked through (they should still be juicy). This will take about 15 minutes. When they are finished, remove the pan from the heat.
Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the livers into a food mill or meat grinder (leave the onions in the skillet) and grind into a bowl while still warm (if you want to be like my Auntie, you can do this with an Ulu or curved chopping blade, but it's much harder on the arms). You can use a food processor, but be careful not to process them too much or you won't have any chunks left. Uneven texture is one of the charms of chopped liver.
Take the bowl of ground liver and transfer the cooked onions into the bowl (leave the juices behind). Stir to combine. If the mixture looks too dry, add a little bit of the juice from the pan until you achieve your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Coarsely chopped two the eggs and stir them into the chopped liver. Aron's recipe then instructs you to garnish the mixture with thin slices of egg white and grated egg yolk. I find this to be far too much effort and I after all that work I hate to get my grater dirty, so I always skip it. I just finish it by placing a sheet of plastic wrap down over the chopped liver and refrigerating for at least two hours.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-05-2007 @ 10:44AM
tzurriz said...
The 2 Tbl of shmaltz in chopped liver a few times a yar won't kill you! Why would you want to use a nearly flavorless oil when the shmaltz brings so much flavor to the party?
Oy.
And, I always use cooked onions. The ones from the shmaltz in fact. Yum yum.
Darn it, now I'm craving chopped liver again!
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12-05-2007 @ 10:51AM
Deuz Augustine said...
There's nothing that says "Time to Purge!" to me more than a big bowl of chopped liver.
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12-05-2007 @ 11:11AM
streetKJ said...
What do you serve this with? A bread of some sorts?
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12-05-2007 @ 11:14AM
Marisa McClellan said...
Tzurriz, one of the reasons I like this is recipe is mostly because I hardly ever actually have schmaltz around. However, I have had it with schmaltz and it is delicious.
Oh, and you can serve it with crackers, matzo, toasted bread. It's also amazing on a sandwich.
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12-05-2007 @ 12:06PM
Adam said...
I just threw up in my mouth.
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12-05-2007 @ 1:18PM
MJ said...
Thank you for another great one. Love this stuff never made it myself and now I will!
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12-05-2007 @ 6:32PM
Julie said...
I grew up eating chopped liver, if my mother didn't have schmaltz she used butter. My mother always put fried onions in hers. We usually served the chopped liver on melba toast or crackers, bagels or rye bread.
Chopped liver makes a great sandwich.
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12-06-2007 @ 10:22AM
kevjohn said...
I'm with Adam (#5) on this one. This looks and sounds... not so good.
Then again, I did down quite a few bowls of chitlins in my younger days, so who am I to talk? heh
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12-06-2007 @ 2:58PM
is carbone said...
In Atlanta, some krogers have schmaltz in plastic tubs. I have no idea how it tastes,(i donot want my cardiologist to have his own heart attack is I even mentioned I had eaten some), But OH the delight that schmaltz adds. NYC born and raised..nothing like that here
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12-10-2007 @ 2:04AM
Nanette said...
OY VEY!!! Your mother used BUTTER??? How goyische!!! Gotta do schmaltz or it's pate, which isn't so bad either, but it's not like Mom's chopped liver. She rendered her own schmaltz from the chicken skin/fat. Anybody remember gribenes - the crispy fat and skin and onions left in the pan? YUM! Today I'm lean and fit but if anyone offered me gribenes.... I'd be all over it! :-) every culture has it's fatty food!
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12-11-2007 @ 1:38PM
Fr. George said...
You are right Nanette! And we used the gribenes we put them in the pan cakes made from the left over egg and crumbs that we breaded with...ummmmm good.Takes me back to my childhood in Hoboken.
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12-11-2007 @ 7:27PM
AH said...
The addition of the eggs as a garnish is something I never would have thought of. I am going to try using eggs marinated in pickled beet juice to top the turkey livers I just made yesterday.
Once I removed the livers from the butter, I tossed in garlic, onion, dill and marjoram and a little mencia (Baltos/Spanish) wine I was drinking. I ate some and put the rest in the fridge. The next day, I food processed the mix with fresh garlic, fresh onion (love to layer flavors of fresh and cooked) and a little jarred red cabbage.
It may sound odd, but it tasted great. I think the pickled beet eggs will make an attractive tasty garnish. Thanks for the idea.
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12-12-2007 @ 12:27AM
Lenka Reznicek said...
Mmmm...delicious. My mom used to make gribbenes when I was a little kid, and I haven't had them for a very long time. But chopped liver is simply delicious as a comfort food and a holiday treat.
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