Budgeting with the Co-Op!

Feeling the pinch of high prices for groceries? It's not a new thing. The first edition of The Co-Op Low Cost Cookbook published by the Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley, Inc., printed recipes with ingredients that "could cost no more than 25￠ per adult serving at average 1964-65 market prices." By the time the 8th edition (the version I have) was printed in 1973, the writers had to "sadly acknowledge that only a few recipes are that low in cost" and that the week's menu for a family of four printed near the end of the book "cost about $31 in February, 1973, compared to $23 in 1965." So, yes, the people from the early 1970s could commiserate with those of us griping about food prices in 2025. (They would probably be surprised by our discontent over egg prices, though, given that the book says that some of the "very few" recipes that still cost 25￠ or less per adult serving are in the eggs and cheese chapter.)

This book includes "only dinner main dishes" which "contain enough protein for good nutrition" since the writers think other meals are easier to make inexpensively, and the protein part of the main meal is the hardest to keep within a strict budget.

Some of these mains are decidedly grim, like the Cottage Cheese Patties.

I love cottage cheese, but it's hard to imagine being too eager to sit down to a meal consisting primarily of cottage cheese thickened and emulsified with egg and bread crumbs before being coated in additional egg and bread crumbs and fried. The bright tomato sauce topper might make it seem a little more festive, but it can only do so much.

If you want to seem a bit more exciting than Cottage Cheese Patties but can't go all-out for something like meatballs, there are Meatball Pancakes.

I guess this is for when there's not quite enough ground beef to make a solid meatloaf or meatball? Just mix the small amount of meat with several eggs and some seasonings, "Drop by spoonfuls onto a hot greased skillet," and serve up a short stack "with gravy, catsup, or a favorite cream sauce."

There are of course recipes for brickified canned fish, like Baked Fish Loaf.

Nice that it calls for a "#303 can mackerel OR 2 7-oz. cans tuna" so the family can use whatever is on sale or already in the pantry. 

Other meals are brightened up with a tiny story, like Joe's Special. 

I had no idea there were any recipes common to "all restaurants named Joe's," but apparently this dish of onion, ground beef, and spinach in scrambled eggs was always on offer, though I'm not sure it was the most compelling reason to eat at Joe's.

It was nice that a few recipes gave plans for two nights in a row. No thinking about what to serve for the second night! Cooks who felt ambitious might try Basic Chuck Stew and then Chuck Stew Variation.

It's ambitious because it involves buying and dismembering a 2-3 pound chuck roast and cooking it from raw both nights. It also requires the cook to convince the family that one meat-and-onion stew served over rice, noodles, or potatoes is substantially different from the other meat-and-onion stew served over noodles, rice, or potatoes. (The first one has a hint of cinnamon! The second one has green pepper and tomatoes! They're different!)

For those who feel less ambitious, Boiled Beef Dinner, then Stuffed Potatoes (Two dinners) requires only one night of boiling beef.

The second night only just involves cutting up the cold beef and stuffing it-- along with onions and potato middles-- into potato skins. Although... the more I think about it, twice-baked-potatoes from scratch aren't that easy either. And trying to convince someone like me that onions are a preferable filling to cheese will be the biggest challenge yet-- 25￠ per serving be damned. So I guess my point is that nothing is easy when you're on a strict budget?

In any case, my favorite part of the book might just be Barbara Chessman's illustration for the lamb chapter. 

A lot of the illustrations have people posing with food in ways that seem unlikely at best, but this one has the added creepiness of the apparent young son holding a bouquet of flowers and giving mom a sideways glance that would make a group of women decide to go to a different bar because they don't want to have to deal with that guy all night.

The Co-Op Low Cost Cookbook cost enough at $5 (as you can see from the cover) that I'm sure I thought twice about it (given its brevity), but it's interesting enough that it was worth the price. (The currency converter says that the price I paid would be the equivalent of 49￠-- about two meals!-- in 1964 or 68￠ in February 1973. Unlikely to get two meals for $5 now... so I guess this is a pretty good deal after all? Sure. We'll go with that.)