author

Mary T. Swickard

b. 1909

Best known for practical mid-century USDA cookbooks, this writer turned everyday ingredients into approachable recipes for home kitchens. Her work has a calm, useful style that reflects the food guidance of postwar America.

1 Audiobook

Apples in Appealing Ways [1951]

Apples in Appealing Ways [1951]

by Mary T. Swickard

About the author

Mary T. Swickard was an American food writer born in 1909 who prepared cookery publications for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sources connected with her work describe her as an author of cookery books for the USDA, and surviving publications show her writing for the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics.

She is best known today for Apples in Appealing Ways (1951), a compact recipe booklet that offers many uses for apples in salads, breads, desserts, and main dishes. Other USDA-era titles associated with her include How to Use Whole and Nonfat Dry Milk, Dry Beans, Peas, Lentils: Modern Cookery, and Turkey on the Table the Year Round, some of them written with collaborators.

Her books are practical rather than literary, but that is part of their charm. They capture a moment when government home-economics publications helped families cook economically, use seasonal foods well, and make reliable meals from simple ingredients.