While in Europe, Mary learned enough German to allow her to write
Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking in English and German after she returned to the United States. Abel also became interested in comparative methods of domestic economy in Europe, causing her to initiate work with
Ellen Swallow Richards at the New England Kitchen. The first publication by Abel, Richards, and others was published in 1892 on the science of nutrition. Abel produced many popular pamphlets for the Rumford Kitchen, established by Richards, for the
Chicago World's Fair. In 1893, Abel's husband was appointed to the position of professor of
pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University and, after the move to Baltimore, began new work in nutrition, writing pamphlets on the nutritional value of various foods for the
United States Department of Agriculture and children's nutrition for the
American Public Health Association. Abel served as a founding member of the Ellen Swallow Richards
Lake Placid Conferences that operated from 1899 to 1908. The conferences were developed with the intention of discussing the betterment of the home and were a push into the up-and-coming home economics movement. Abel also was an early member of the American Home Economics movement and was an editor of the
Journal of Home Economics, founded by Richards. Abel continued to produce pamphlets on the prevention of infectious diseases, such as typhoid fever. Abel's best known work,
Successful Family Life on the Moderate Income, was published in 1921. Abel's book detailed how individuals of limited means could live well. Abel apparently used these methods in her own home very effectively. ==Honors==