Back in October I made a posting on another blog about a report on obesity; I got far more comments than usual. One comment from Ranfuchs was though-provoking for me as I think it accurately reflects how some people approach food buying. I want to challenge this view even if the resulting posting is somewhat pedantic.

For instance, at Tesco, for instance, you buy 2 pizzas for 4.00 This would normally be enough for at least 4 people. That is 50p per person. Pies are about the same. The worst grade fresh tomato, for instance, at the same shop is 64p each.

So what would a typical mother, who does not have much money to spend, and even less free time to prepare food would choose for her kids?

The way to obesity, is her easiest choice.

I do not think the arithmetic is quite right (sharing 2 pizzas for a family of 4 is £1.00 each) but certainly the pizza option sounds cheap. My boys are big enough that they would certainly demand one pizza each (so nearer £2.00/head). A £2.00 pizza might vary from about 230-430 grams so in the price bracket there is a fair variation in size.

A month ago I did a quick survey of prices in my local supermarkets (may not be the best value for money nor the best quality). With almost 4 weeks on the road I never got round to writing the post. For reasons of space I quote the Sainsbury prices which are neither the most expensive nor the cheapest.

Staples:
Couscous 69p/500g
Long grained rice 46p/kg
White potato 37p/kg (this is admitedly much cheaper than some named varieties)
Fusili 51p/500g

Fresh vegetables:
Tomato £1.29/kg
Carrot 62p/kg
White cabbage 79p/kg
Onion 89p/kg
Iceberg lettuce 85p/ea

Meat:
Lean pork mince £4.28/kg
Pork loin steaks £6.40/kg
Stewing steak (beef) £4.10/kg
Beef steak mince £4.38/kg
Lamb mince £4.30/kg
Lamb chops £7.98/kg

A main meal from fresh ingredients might simplistically consist of meat, a staple and vegetables.

For staples, I would use the following rules of thumb for budgeting:

70 g/person for couscous (39 p for four people)
100 g/person for rice (18 p for four people)
100 g/person for pasta (41 p for four people)
200 g/person for potatoes (7 p for four people)

For vegetables I would assume 200 g per person (in practice that might be more than one vegetable). Taking a few examples that gives 26 p per person (£1.04 for four) with tomatoes, 72 p with onions, 50 p with carrots etc.

For meat I would assume 100-125 g per person. For four people (with 125 g) that gives

Lean pork mince £2.14
Pork loin steaks £3.20
Stewing steak (beef) £2.05
Beef steak mince £2.17
Lamb mince £2.15
Lamb chops £3.99

Thus with a budget of £4.00 providing a cheaper meat (mince or a stewing cut) is used it should be possible to combine most vegetables and staples and still have some money over for herbs, spices, oil, etc.

The pizza (junk food) is of course cheaper if you compare with lamb or pork chops or a prime cut of meat. However that is probably not a reasonable comparison given the tiny amount of meat or vegetable that there is on a pizza.

Of course, my general assumptions reflect conventional British cooking and are not necessarily the best route to low cost, fresh cooking. As a student I noted how, despite my limited budget, students from Asia certainly cooked for less than me. They generally used fresh vegetables and meat but there were some tricks to reduce the spend.

Indian students made good use of pulses. Sainsbury lentils are priced at £1.38/kg so a good deal less than meat. A dhal will cost less than half the price of a meat curry. I noticed how Chinese and Indian colleagues used a lot less meat; for example using a single pork chop for 4-5 people but by fine chopping ensuring that the taste was there.

Returning to the original comment there is of course the question of time. The time required to prepare may differ considerably from the time required to cook. However, planning should get around this obstacle. For example if I make a pork meat loaf (definitely cheaper than the pizza) the preparation time is max 10 minutes before one hour in the oven. My wife's stewing steak takes 5 minutes to prepare but then requires a long braising time.

Summing up, convenience of some junk food may make the path to obesity an easy one. However, it should be possible to cook with fresh ingredients a tasty meal for no more than it costs to prepare junk food.