In times past, traditional French homemakers would write down their favorite daily recipes in a special journal, passing down the secrets of the families' cuisine to the next generation. Charlotte de Saint Alban inherited one such journal from her grandmother, an excellent cook. Its contents reveal French cooking and French kitchen life as it existed during the years 1893 to 1940. These 200 recipes include 70 appetizers, main courses, and side dishes--among them meat croquettes, salmon mousse, duck with olives, and eggs a la Mirabeau--along with 130 desserts, sweets, preserves, and beverages, including an amazingly simple strawberry souffle, madeleines, orange-perfumed meringues, and classic dessert fritters called "Merveilles." Prepared in a household kitchen using much the same equipment familiar to us today, the dishes have been tested and adapted for the modern home kitchen. Not only the updated recipes, but a section of the original journal, with Grandmere's handwritten tips, is perfectlyreproduced here. For cookbook collectors and lovers of real French cuisine, this book is a treasure.