Archive.org direct link
Open Library main page
Eveleen De Rivaz - Little French Dinners (1898)
Archive.org direct link
Open Library main page
Auguste Mario - Easy French Cookery (1910)
Archive.org direct link
Open Library main page
French Cookery for American Homes (1901)
Archive.org direct link
Open Library main page
One main book and then a few supplemental ones.
The Yates book is both an explanation and a guide. Her point was to help the British both understand French cooking and to adopt more economical practices. As an example, she describes the French demand for soup (compared to what she says is a British reluctance) as giving a warm start to the meal but also reducing the need for liquids (specifically mentioning wine and the money that saves) and in some cases adjusting for the possible lower quality of following dishes. These soups are also light with meat and therefore more economical.
Things like that can still be adopted to some degree today though very few of us will install brick ovens into our kitchens. (Though Yates is only explaining, not recommending.) She discusses how the French serve vegetables, the butchering of pigs, the use of sauces, how to construct soups, differences in frying techniques, and so on.
She then ends each chapter with some actual recipes, most still quite useful and often familiar. (Though a Briton would find her pickle-less "cheese sandwich" not quite the thing.) I'm half-tempted to make the mushroom ketchup ("there is no more useful ketchup for kitchen use").
Lucy H. Yates (1863-c1935) was a British journalist who wrote about cooking and housekeeping, producing many books on that subject (Handbook of Fish Cookery, The Model Kitchen, Marriage on Small Means). She was a suffragist and did some BBC broadcasts. There's more info at Persephone Books.
The others are a mixed group.
The De Rivaz book has thirty menus, generally on the pattern of a soup, fish course, meat, vegetable and a dessert. The receipes are valid but it's interesting to see how the meal is constructed.
Mario's book is divided into categories (eggs, sauces, roasts) with a short suggestion of menus at the end. The recipes are a bit more simple.
French Cookery for American Homes is very similar to the Mario book.
