Hindu Dietetics For Body Building: Including The Nervous And Glandular Systems
Sonoma, CA: Truth Burbery, 1924.
First edition. 69 pp. Bound in publisher's cloth-backed stiff wrappers printed in black. Very Good, wrappers lightly worn and soiled, handwritten recipe in pencil on p. 66.
Probably the second, and much more extensive, publication of Indian recipes in America, written by a Caucasian woman along the lines of Dr. K.D.Shastri’s 1917 book, though much closer to a health-oriented cookbook than Shastri’s work. Both are very early; the first book completely on the subject of Indian cookery for American readers did not appear until 1973. Nearly half the book, some 33 pages, includes recipes for Rice, Soups, Dal, Meat and Fish Dishes, Curries, Fried Vegetables, Appetizers, Desserts and Drinks; some enticing entries - Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Curries, Curried and Roasted Eggplant, Chapati, Cashmere Chutney, Mustard Lemons, Rose Pudding, Rock Candy and Puffed Rice Water.
Burbery nee Boehmer was a young German immigrant who came to America in 1917 as “Secretary of a Religious Movement” (likely the Self-Realization Fellowship of Swami Yogananda) and billed herself as a Psychologist from New Zealand (her husband had been from there). She later settled in San Francisco as a bohemian artist, employed during the Depression, by the WPA Arts and Crafts Project. She dedicated this book to a “teacher” identified only as S.C. who translated the recipes from Bengali and "so made it possible for the Western world to benefit by a clean wholesome, pure and nourishing diet."
Price: $2,000.00