What Immigrants Ate After Arriving on Ellis Island in the Early 20th Century

Max MillerofTasting Historyprepared a typical meal of what European immigrants at the turn of the 20th Century would eat when they finally landed on Ellis Island.

From much of the early 20th century Ellis Island is where the ancestors of 40% of US citizensentered the country looking to start a new life. And while most people only spent a few hours onthe island, there were some who had to stay longer. And so they would have been eating meals like thisone of beef and barley soup, tapioca pudding, breadand coffee.

Miller decided upon beef stew and tapioca pudding, which he prepared while explaining what the immigration experience was like for people of different classes. The classism and bigotry, mixed with the corruption and politics that governed the process, meant that the meals were less than appetizing for those who could not afford first or even second class travel.

See when the island first opened there was a lotof corruption, and so the contractors who were incharge of distributing the food would often skimoff the top... In these early years the menu oftenconsisted of stewed prunes spooned right out ofa can on top of some dry bread. Add to that thefact that there was never enough kitchen staffso the bowls and cups were often used and reusedused without washing.

When these conditions were made known, President Teddy Roosevelt formed a committee to improve the food and experience of incoming immigrants.

In 1903 president TeddyRoosevelt visited the island to learn about itsoperations, and he was not impressed and so hecreated a committee to look into the island, andto solve the issues that he saw and shockingly itworked. By 1906 we see menus that include beefstew, baked beans,and even taking into accountdietary restrictions of the Jewish immigrants.

The first decade of the 1900s was the busiest time for Ellis Island, and it was very difficult for the facility staff to keep it clean. Another investigation uncovered that rotten food was being served to immigrants, and eventually it was improved again with the termination of the catering company.

So in 1913...it was the brand new Department of Labor whostarted an investigation and they found thatmoldy bread and rotten fish were being served and theygot some pies that were apple pies opened them upand found just apple cores. ... It wasn't until 1916 when thecontract was up that the new commissioner of theisland just decided not to renew.

Miller tasted the food he made from these early recipes and found that it wasn't bad, just not particularly tasty by modern standards.

I mean there's a lot of broth to it, so it is definitely more like asoup than a stew, but there is a lotof flavor in there.... it has this unctuous kind ofgreasy mouth feel to it. Not unpleasantly sobut it makes it so it feels much moresubstantial than than I feel like itactually is...And now the pudding. ... It's not assweet as a modern-day tapioca pudding would be. It's not as- it's just a lot more firm.