Savoring stories: Chopped liver

When I was younger, I couldn’t pronounce “Bubbie” or “Grandma”; instead, it came out as “Goummy.” So, Goummy it was!

My grandmother Sarah Berman was a first-generation American who married an immigrant, my grandfather, George Berman. George came to the United States from Latvia in 1923 at the age of 10. He and his brothers became very successful in the scrap metal industry in Pittsburgh. My grandmother was the bookkeeper for the company and loved to cook. I loved everything she made, and it was all from scratch.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table, laying out the crepes for blintzes. The “muun cookies” (poppyseed) were amazing and I’m so sorry that recipe is long gone. But the one thing my Goummy made that no one could resist was chopped liver. I didn’t even know what liver was, but this stuff was great! She used the old recipe using shmaltz and a hand grinder. She substituted a secret ingredient for the shmaltz after my Zaddie had a heart attack and the doctor told Goummy that she was trying to kill him with all the fatty old country recipes.

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She never wrote the recipe down — she just knew it. And she was not eager to share it. When she finally agreed to tell me, it was not well defined and I had to take notes. She told me the ingredients, but not the amounts. Over the years, I figured out most of the amounts, but I still add a little too much of something, or not enough of something else. Still, it always brings us back to those days around the kitchen table, recalling how much she did for all of us.

My Goummy used a hand grinder, so, of course, I used a hand grinder. After I bought the second hand grinder and my cousin managed to cut her finger on the blades (the added ingredient of blood might have added something to the chopped liver that time…), we decided to try a food processor. It worked! Gone are the days of the grinder.

We often assigned another cousin, Chuck, the duty of “celery boy.” His sole job for the morning (we used to make more than 15 pounds at a time) was to pull the strings off of the many ribs of celery. This is a crucial step and one that cannot be ignored. Originally, it was because the strings caused the grinder to jam; we would have to disassemble the grinder every 10 minutes. We aren’t as diligent with the food processor, but you definitely don’t want stringy chopped liver.

This recipe brings my family back to a place and time when things were easier and times together were more frequent.

Goummy’s chopped liver

Oven temperature: 350 F

Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
Onions, 3-pound bag
Beef liver, 2 pounds
Celery, 1 bunch/stalk
Eggs, hard-boiled, 1 dozen
Miracle Whip, 32-ounce jar
Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon
Salt to cook liver

Yield: 5-7 pounds of chopped liver

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F

• Chop onions

• In a frying pan, heat the vegetable oil. Once the oil looks shiny, add the onions. Sauté the onions for about 6 minutes or until translucent. Transfer into a large mixing bowl.

• Wash the liver.

• Spray a baking pan with cooking oil.

• Salt lightly each side of the liver and place in the baking pan.

• Cook the liver for about 20 minutes until all pink is gone.

• Wash liver again.

• Make certain any skin on the liver is removed.

• Cut the liver into smaller pieces.

• Put the liver into another small mixing bowl.

• Pull the celery ribs off the stalk.

• Using a peeler, peel the celery’s first layer of celery string. (This is a very important step. If you leave the string in the celery, the final dish will be stringy.) This is the most time consuming step.

• Cut the de-stringed celery into smaller lengths (about 3 inches).

• Put the celery in a small mixing bowl.

• Remove the shells from all of the eggs.

• Put the eggs in another small mixing bowl.

• You are now ready to construct the chopped liver.

• Put the grinder/shredding attachment disc on the food processor. Put the lid on so that you can put the ingredients through the chute and use the pusher to move the food toward the shredding disc.

• Take an egg, a piece of celery and a piece of liver and push it through the chute. Continue until the food processor is full. Empty contents into the large mixing bowl where the onions have been hanging out. You may need to do this three or four times until all ingredients have gone through the food processor. There is no real order, just make sure they are well blended.

• Once all the ingredients are well blended, add tablespoons of Miracle Whip and mix. Do not put too much in at a time. You will probably use more than half the jar at this time.

• Cover the bowl.

• Chill for a few hours. Ideally chill overnight.

• Before serving, look and taste. Often the liver absorbs the Miracle Whip and you need to add more. Do that now.

• You can sprinkle parsley or paprika for a nice presentation.

• Serve with bread, crackers, or matzo. PJC

This recipe will be included in Suzan Hauptman’s upcoming cookbook “A Cabin Cookbook: A collection of cozy recipes when you have all day or just a few minutes.”

Do you have a tried-and-true dish that comes with an interesting origin story? If so, we want to hear from you! Submit recipes along with their backstories to newsdesk@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Recipe” in the subject line. Please include a photo of the dish. You may see your submission as part of our new column “Savoring Stories”!