In Defense of Chopped Liver

How you people can continue to defend the indefensible for so many pages has rendered me mute, speechless, silent, without tongue.

ahhhh tongue
with mustard
dark rye

one of the only times I don't mind caraway in the rye



I will admit to preferring the dark rye toasted. Very nutty flavour and crisp texture. Great contrast to tongue.

Chopped liver, it was a family tragedy. We didn't have it growing up, we had nearly everything else, I knew 80 ways to make gefilte fish fit into any meal and there were dozens upon dozens of uses for matzoh but chopped liver wasn't there. Clearly Mother didn't like it or it would have been a constant.

Once properly introduced to it I wasn't impressed or thrilled. I found the consistency strange, uncomfortable actually. Then there was the taste. It was like nothing I'd had before and I wasn't planning to make more visits to it. I applied a little mustard and it improved.

For the next years I avoided it and stuck with my standards. Pastrami, knishes, and my beloved kugel and plates of latkes (throughout the year not just at Chanukah). When next I had it, I still wasn't thrilled, but I ate it, Moishe suggested sliced onions on top and I tried it. It was much improved.

I see a few here have recommended mayo, that sounds like an interesting idea but I might need a few glasses of milk to wash it down. (I wonder if Rabbi K. would approve?)

I don't out of the way go for chopped liver, but I no longer turn away from it.

Tongue?! Did someone say tongue?! My grandmother was an excellent cook when it came to tongue.

I KNEW this horror would commence when I mentioned tongue.


TONGUE! The only thing worse than tongue and liver is kidney. Kidney literally makes me throw up.

You don't like kidney? Tongue and kidney are both divine when correctly cooked and prepared.

May your Kindle refuse to show you any more Harry Potter books.

Kidney isn't as delicious as tongue but it's nice.

Can we discuss tripe and haggis next? My grandmother also knew what to do with tripe and it was to die for. A nice plate of turnips along side and you'd be smiling in no time.

(although to be fair, a pastrami sandwich on pumpernickel and a large bowl of borscht would be better)

I am so out of this thread of horror.

You live in NYC, right? Then go down to Brighton Beach and have some chopped liver at one of the Russian restaurants - it will change your mind about liver.

I've had chopped liver several times, I have been to Brighton Beach a number of times (I like the boardwalk between there and Coney Island) haven't tried their chopped liver, maybe at some time I'll take the plunge. I think it may be either an acquired taste or one that you are born with as is true with many foods.

My mother used to make corned tongue, served with a sugary raisin syrup. Delicious. I didn't like the fatty parts though.
Memories of Campo dei Fiori in Rome - a small stall with tongues hanging, ready to be purchased. Did I keep a photo? I dunno, maybe.

What I wouldn't give for a plate of pickled tongue, deli mustard, my french fries, and a sour pickle. I mentioned elsewhere that I wanted to buy a tongue. Over $40. No. Still dreaming.

I've eaten chopped liver in a restaurant once. Not good enough. I'm sure there's good--but not good enough. Plus when you get it in a restaurant, you miss the sound of the chopping in the wooden bowl and that marvelous sound of the chopper scraping the side of the bowl. Even when I'm the one doing the chopping and scraping, the sounds mean home to me.