My wife, Kate, and I are starting a boiled peanut business. Mac's Meats, a family-owned grocery store in Winter Haven, has sampled our boiled peanuts and they like them more than those from their current supplier. Mac's has agreed to buy our boiled peanuts. They will take 400-500 pounds per week, which is what they currently sell.
Kate and I are trying to get equipment to boil 80 to 100 pounds per day. It takes one gallon of water to boil one pound of peanuts. Our procedure requires that the peanuts be boiled for 3 hours in one pot, then switched to another pot with fresh boiling water for 2 more hours of boiling. While they need to soak in the flavored, salty water for 2 hours after they are done, they need to avoid soaking or sitting before they have cooked 5 hours. Thus we need the capacity to boil 200 pounds per day to produce 100 pounds per day, as the peanuts must be transferred from one pot of boiling water to another. We plan to lease space in a blueberry packing facility, which has ample utilities and cold storage.
One approach could be to get ten 20 gallon pots and put them on 10 burners. Another is two 100 gallon pots, with colanders to remove and drain the peanuts, lifted by a winch and pulleys. Propane is out as a power source because of safety issues that increase costs and reduce flexibility. Se we will need electric as a power source. I suspect that electric cookers might be too inefficient, and the use of steam supplied by a small electric boiler for cooking might be a more feasible approach. The steam could be direct applied culinary grade or indirect to a jacketed cooker at a low pressure.
The largest retail marketer of boiled peanuts is Hardy Farms, in distribution in Publix and other chains. They boil over 7,000 pounds per day. Hawks is a wholesale supplier of boiled peanuts that boils more than that, so there are large commercial boiling pots to do this.
Does anyone know where I can find boiling pots and electric power equipment to do this or get it made?
Kate and I are trying to get equipment to boil 80 to 100 pounds per day. It takes one gallon of water to boil one pound of peanuts. Our procedure requires that the peanuts be boiled for 3 hours in one pot, then switched to another pot with fresh boiling water for 2 more hours of boiling. While they need to soak in the flavored, salty water for 2 hours after they are done, they need to avoid soaking or sitting before they have cooked 5 hours. Thus we need the capacity to boil 200 pounds per day to produce 100 pounds per day, as the peanuts must be transferred from one pot of boiling water to another. We plan to lease space in a blueberry packing facility, which has ample utilities and cold storage.
One approach could be to get ten 20 gallon pots and put them on 10 burners. Another is two 100 gallon pots, with colanders to remove and drain the peanuts, lifted by a winch and pulleys. Propane is out as a power source because of safety issues that increase costs and reduce flexibility. Se we will need electric as a power source. I suspect that electric cookers might be too inefficient, and the use of steam supplied by a small electric boiler for cooking might be a more feasible approach. The steam could be direct applied culinary grade or indirect to a jacketed cooker at a low pressure.
The largest retail marketer of boiled peanuts is Hardy Farms, in distribution in Publix and other chains. They boil over 7,000 pounds per day. Hawks is a wholesale supplier of boiled peanuts that boils more than that, so there are large commercial boiling pots to do this.
Does anyone know where I can find boiling pots and electric power equipment to do this or get it made?
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