This dish is a common menu item in kosher Jewish delicatessens in Britain, Canada, South Africa, Argentina and the United States.

The dish is often made by sautéing or broiling liver and onions, adding hard-boiled eggs, salt and pepper, and grinding that mixture.

"[5] In a 1980 monologue, Johnny Carson humorously referenced the phrase while discussing unemployment statistics, saying, "If everyone on welfare were chopped liver, you could spread them on a line of Ritz crackers from here to Bulgaria."

Its evolution may also have been shaped by underworld slang, where it referred to "a beaten and scarred person," and by the urban adaptation of the rural expression "That ain't hay."

Lexicographer Sol Steinmetz suggests that its status as a mere side dish or appetizer, overshadowed by staples like chicken soup or gefilte fish, made it an apt symbol of insignificance.