Author: Old Jewish Lady

Chopped Liver: Gehakte Leber

~ Old Jewish Lady

(You can read the geshichte below the recipe.)

Chopped Chicken Liver

  • 1 to  1  1/2  pound(s) chicken livers
  • 4-5 hard-boiled eggs, or to taste*
  • 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2-3 Tablespoons rendered chicken fat (shmaltz)
  • Parsley (Italian of course!)
  • Salt & pepper

Make hard-boiled eggs. Broil the livers thoroughly on a baking sheet, turning halfway through. Saute the onion in the chicken fat until the onion is golden or even somewhat browned. Place the cooked ingredients in a meat grinder or food processor. Add salt and pepper. Pulse or grind to desired texture. Garnish with parsley.

*As far as how many eggs to use, it all depends on how strong you want the liver flavor. Of course the eggs dilute or “cut” the livery flavor the more eggs you use. Also, get organic livers from organic chickens. They taste so much better and you can see that they look healthier.

—

Some background: This is so easy and so delicious. Chopped liver can be made with beef liver, calves liver, or chicken liver. In the old days, my mother didn’t always have a lot of chicken livers available, although she could get them from the butcher. Way back when, people used to buy whole chickens from a butcher or market, not parts.

One ingredient you must use is shmaltz, which is rendered chicken fat. This is sometimes found in the refrigerator case or freezer section. But it’s best to make it yourself from fat from a chicken. Just saute the fat and some skin till you create a nice amount of clear, melted fat. (I have seen some people use mayonnaise, but that is a terrible way to make chopped liver. But I must tell you that mayonnaise is kosher with meat and not a dairy item. Mayonnaise is just egg with oil. So the idea of never putting mayonnaise on deli or meat is just traditional taste and not a kosher problem as far as I know.)

Booklist 2

~ Old Jewish Lady

I am making progress in building my booklist and if you share my eclectic tastes, please see the GoodReads list below. It includes mainly history, historical fiction, comparative religion, and detective stories. And I am still adding. So this has everything from the prior list and more:

GoodReads List Mar 2 2016

2016-03-03 17.46.53

Thoroughly Modern

~ Old Jewish Lady

I’m an up-to-date, hipsy, pipsy lady. I’ve got a blog. If you want to “follow” my blog, there are two ways: If you are a WordPress person, then go toward the bottom right and look for the blue banner with the logo. But, if you want my posts to go to your regular email, then look at the way way bottom of your screen, there should be a little tab with a plus sign. Thank you.

Cartoon New Age vs Old Age

Booklist

~ Old Jewish Lady

I’m not just reading books about Judaism but I also find early Christianity very interesting. I love historical fiction and detective stories, too. And books about the English language. I will add to the book list as fast as I can.

GoodReads List Feb 23 2016

 

Our Building

~ Old Jewish Lady

During the depression we decided to move in the with tenants instead of paying rent. My father owned a building with cold water flats when we moved in. It was in Bay Ridge on 69th Street between Fifth and Fourth Avenues. This was a typical Brooklyn neighborhood. It was a goyish neighborhood.

There was no heating. We had old black stoves with a lid and you put coke inside and that was how you heated and cooked. But later we bought a stove. And my father put in electricity. But before that, they would send me to a grocery store near Fourth Avenue to get the coke; they called the store “The Greek’s” even though the owner was Armenian. My mother would send me to the store and I would get the coke.

The subway was around the corner from us and two trolleys ran on our street in either direction. The boys still played stickball in between the trolleys.

Vermeer Shmeer

~ Old Jewish Lady

In Yiddish, one of the highest compliments you can pay a young woman is to say “Zee iz a meydl mit on oyringl.” She is a girl with an earring. What exactly does that mean? It’s hard to translate because it means she is exceptional in every way. Beautiful inside and out. With great energy, a real go-getter. She’s the whole package.

A meydl mit on oyringl.
A meydl mit on oyringl.