Chopped liver

[Douglas G. Wilson]

"Chopped liver" means "something cheap or trivial or something which can be
ignored". It's been around since the 1930's, says Chapman's dictionary.
HDAS shows an example from 1954. It's like "chickenfeed", or the "hay" in
"That ain't hay". Why? Maybe because -- pound for pound -- chopped liver is
(or was once) relatively inexpensive ... compared with, say, pastrami. I
think any 'plebeian' substance can (in principle) be named in such an
expression; perhaps this one has or had an ethnic or other connection which
suited it to some comedian's shtick. I remember it from my childhood,
usually in a context like "A million dollars? Now, that's not chopped
liver!" Some of the food-word specialists may know a lot more.

-- Doug Wilson