The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook by Tom Bernardin is best summed up in it’s subtitle – “The Story of Our Common Past Told Through the Recipes and Reminiscences of Our Immigrant Ancestors.” Link to book site. Latest edition 2003.

Back in 1991, my mother-in-law Jacqueline Deasy was honored to have one of her family recipes included. Here is her story and recipe.

From Jacqueline A. Frost Deasy of Port Jefferson, New York:

My grandfather’s name was Nicolas Melissinos. My grandmother was Daisy Welsh Melissinos, and my mother was Chrisula Melissinos Frost.

My Greek grandfather and English Grandmother arrived at Ellis Island in 1904. They had met and married in London, England, and came over with their first child, a two-year old daughter, Chrisula. When the immigration procedures were over they found themselves finally on the New York City dock and hadn’t the vaguest notion of how to get in touch with Greek friends in the city or where they were located. My grandfather decided to leave my grandmother and the baby on the dock by the luggage and go find his friends’ neighborhood so they could temporarily settle in.

Because he had trouble finding the area he was looking for, my grandfather took several hours to locate the address he had carried with him from London. When he finally arrived back on the dock, there was my grandmother and their daughter sound asleep on top of the pile of luggage on the, by now, empty dock and totally unaware of their surroundings. My grandfather repeated the story many times – the picture of them huddled together asleep on the luggage amused and impressed him so strongly.

This is a Greek recipe from my grandfather.

LAMB & MACARONI

Leg of lamb – any size
Large can of whole tomatoes
1 pound Ditalini macaroni, #39 or #40
salt
pepper
smidgen of oregano
small cuts of garlic

Salt and pepper top of lamb, cut and insert small garlic pieces in top fatty skin. Roast lamb in a 350 degree oven for 1 ½ hours (to your taste). When cooked, take lamb out of roasting pan and put aside covering with foil to keep warm. Keep the oven on at 400 degrees. Put roasting pan with meat juices on burner on top of stove; add can of tomatoes (breaking tomatoes down with a fork); add approximately ½ can of water, seasonings, and heat till simmering point (on medium heat). When simmering, add macaroni, stir and immediately take off the stove and put into oven for a total of 20 minutes – stirring once after 10 minutes in the oven. Meanwhile, carve lamb so that all is ready at once and serve immediately.