Designing a Seasonal Canning Kitchen

[Diavolicchio]

I need some advice.

I'm going to be building a new home next year, which will be a relatively small cottage in the country (1,396 sq ft) built on the edge of an heirloom fruit orchard and large organic garden. The cottage is currently still in the design phase, but nearly complete.

I'm going to be doing a lot of canning and preserving, but know of the headaches and inconveniences of doing a lot of canning in your own kitchen during the hottest months of the year. I want to avoid these inconveniences by adding a small separate "summer canning kitchen" that is close to the main kitchen, but still completely separate from it, allowing me to keep the associated steam and heat and chaos confined to its own space.

I've got a couple of challenges, the primary one being available space. I'm intentionally building a small house because I've spent enough years in a home heating and cleaning a lot of house that just wasn't being used. So I hired an architect who has done a great job keeping holding the reigns and making sure I'm only building as much house as I truly need. The result of this is that I've got a room measuring only 7' x 8' in which to create this seasonal canning kitchen. Fortunately, it's only 5 feet and two doors away from the main kitchen in the house.

I'd really value some input from the canning experts out there in taking this 7' x 8' room and maximizing the capabilities of this new space. I'm new to larger-scale canning and therefore don't know how best to design this space and what exactly I'm going to need.

Foremost, I will be making sure that this space is as well-ventilated as possible, both with a ventilation fan as well as a 12" x 72" dormer window above the workspace that can be opened as needed.

The basic components I believe I'm going to need for this canning kitchen are:

1) A couple of high-output burners (22,000 BTU) that can be used indoors.
2) A utility sink.
3) A prep area (with butcher block)
4) A full counter work space for canning and the subsequent cooling, labeling and packing of what I've canned.
5) As much storage as I can allocate for canning supplies, both in the way of counter space and cupboard space.
6) Waste containers for hauling off organic material to the compost area.

​

Beyond these, I'm at a loss.

I'd really appreciate some expert advice in how to design and equip this space. One advantage that I've got is that a full kitchen will indeed just be 5 feet away, so I'll be able to use that space as well for things that aren't going to fill the house with heat and steam (dishwasher, refrigerator, extra sink and counter top space, etc.)

I'm envisioning two 8' long counters (24" deep) with a 36" wide aisle between them. A utility sink will be part of one counter, or possible at the opposite end of the room between the counters. I'll also have two high-output burners for accommodating both a 40 quart stock pot and a 40 quart pressure cooker/canner.

Here's where I hit the wall though and need your advice.

Would any of you experts be kind enough to offer me some advice as to how YOU would set up a seasonal canning kitchen given the space constraints I've got to work with?

By the way, here's a part of the floorplan that will give you an overview of the main kitchen and where it will sit relative to the canning kitchen:

Thanks in advance for your input!



John

 

[Diavolicchio]

No responses at ALL? After nearly a WEEK?

Is there no one on here who knows anything about canning?


John

 

[velochic]

The only thing I can think of is that if you are going to be doing large-scale canning and you're building a small cottage... where will you properly store your jars when you're finished?

Other than that, no ideas because the thought of having a dedicated canning space (and I can A LOT, both pressure and water bath all year around from veggies to meat to stews to jams) seems like a waste of space. I'd rather have one or two great burners on my stove and use the space to set up a root cellar for storing everything.

 

[Snoop Puss]

Crumbs, John. I can't believe no-one has answered - there are some serious canners on this site. And much as velochic thinks it's a waste of space, I don't because in fact I'm half thinking of doing something very similar to you but have absolutely no idea what would be required.

I live in Europe, so I'm going to ask you a question. A 40-quart pressure cooker - is that 80 pints, as in ten gallons? That sounds enormous to a total beginner like me.

Guys, any advice would be welcomed, not just by John but by me.

 

[Diavolicchio]

The only thing I can think of is that if you are going to be doing large-scale canning and you're building a small cottage... where will you properly store your jars when you're finished?

Other than that, no ideas because the thought of having a dedicated canning space (and I can A LOT, both pressure and water bath all year around from veggies to meat to stews to jams) seems like a waste of space. I'd rather have one or two great burners on my stove and use the space to set up a root cellar for storing everything.

I'll have two root cellars in the basement of this little house, each with different temperature and humidity conditions for storing different produce. These root cellars will be immediately beneath the main kitchen in the cottage and accessed via the stairs immediately outside of this canning kitchen.

If I'm going to be doing a ton of canning, with large pots steaming away for hours on end during the hottest time of the year, I'd rather have that steam and heat kept isolated from the cottage and self-contained in (and ventilated from) this little seasonal canning kitchen. Make sense?

My original plans were just to have two powerful individual burners for canning, but a few people convinced me to just go with a full cooktop, so I'll be using one with 5 burners, the most powerful of which will be able to adjust from 18,000 BTUs down to 450. Here's the particular model I'll be using:

If all goes as planned, it should be a piece of cake getting things directly into the root cellars.

I appreciate your feedback.



John

 

[Diavolicchio]

I live in Europe, so I'm going to ask you a question. A 40-quart pressure cooker - is that 80 pints, as in ten gallons? That sounds enormous to a total beginner like me.

Guys, any advice would be welcomed, not just by John but by me.

Yes, that would be 10 gallons. I've got a ton of marinara sauce each year to can!


John

 

[bethzaring]

The only thing I can think of is that if you are going to be doing large-scale canning and you're building a small cottage... where will you properly store your jars when you're finished?

Other than that, no ideas because the thought of having a dedicated canning space (and I can A LOT, both pressure and water bath all year around from veggies to meat to stews to jams) seems like a waste of space. I'd rather have one or two great burners on my stove and use the space to set up a root cellar for storing everything.

I agree 100% with velochic. I don't feel I need a separate room for canning, and I also do a lot of canning (in hot and humid southern Ohio). And storage space is more of a concern to me, than building a separate room for canning. If you are doing that much canning that you need a separate room to process the food, then that is a heck of a lot of canned goods.

Just how much canning are you planning to do? How many quart or pint jars?

Frankly, the original post just had me shaking my head...I do not have the problems the OP imagines. My advice is to use the existing kitchen for canning, and then make changes as you see the need.

Why don't you utilize your architect for this issue? What problems have you encountered when you "canned tons of marinara sauce"?

 

[Diavolicchio]

I agree 100% with velochic. I don't feel I need a separate room for canning, and I also do a lot of canning (in hot and humid southern Ohio). And storage space is more of a concern to me, than building a separate room for canning. If you are doing that much canning that you need a separate room to process the food, then that is a heck of a lot of canned goods.

My advice is to use the existing kitchen for canning, and then make changes as you see the need.

Bethzaring:

My original question wasn't whether to have this little canning kitchen, but rather how best to design it, given the space I've got to work with.

If you wouldn't use one yourself, that's terrific. But it doesn't address my question.

As for quantity, I'll be canning approximately 486 quarts of various forms of tomatoes and tomato sauce, along with 54 quarts of roasted peppers.

Total? 30 cases.




John

 

[bethzaring]

Bethzaring:

My original question wasn't whether to have this little canning kitchen, but rather how best to design it.

If you wouldn't use one yourself, that's terrific. But it's also not particularly relevant.



John

forgive me, I thought you were asking for advice from experienced canners. Maybe you should rely on your own extensive canning experiences then.

 

[Diavolicchio]

forgive me, I thought you were asking for advice from experienced canners. Maybe you should rely on your own extensive canning experiences then.

Bethzaring,

I asked HOW to design something, not whether to design it. Regardless of whether you have 4 days or 40 years of experience doing canning under your belt, your response to the question wasn't relevant.

Why would I care whether YOU'D want or need or see the benefit of having a separate canning kitchen? It would be like me asking for advice on building a house, and you chiming in that YOU don't need one. Frankly, who CARES whether you do?



John

 

[Alix]

John, perhaps then your question would be better asked on a design forum. Our posters were trying to help you as best they could. Frankly we have a LOT of experience here and bethzaring is one of our most experienced canners. I'd take her advice in a minute.

Honestly, I think you are asking a question that the posters here are not equipped to answer. Few of us can on the scale you describe (with the notable exception of yourself and bethzaring) so we have nothing to offer you. Now if you were to ask for help on how to can or what recipes to use I think you'd get a lot more play.

Good luck. Hope you find some help.

 

[Diavolicchio]

John, perhaps then your question would be better asked on a design forum. Our posters were trying to help you as best they could. Frankly we have a LOT of experience here and bethzaring is one of our most experienced canners. I'd take her advice in a minute.

Honestly, I think you are asking a question that the posters here are not equipped to answer. Few of us can on the scale you describe (with the notable exception of yourself and bethzaring) so we have nothing to offer you. Now if you were to ask for help on how to can or what recipes to use I think you'd get a lot more play.

Good luck. Hope you find some help.

Alix:

A design forum isn't necessary. Nor should it be. All that should be required is someone who has done a lot of canning and can extrapolate what they've learned and apply it to a smaller working space.

When I posted this thread on January 3rd, I also posted it in two different homesteading forums and on the Harvest forum on GardenWeb, just to cover my bases. I got a wealth of responses from each, almost immediately, and was able to get pretty much all of the suggestions and advice that I was after. I'd post links to the threads, but apparently I can't post URLs on here until I have at least 15 posts under my belt.

I did find it odd though that on a website devoted to cooking experts and canning aficionados such as Discuss Cooking, that I got no responses for over two weeks, and then, by a couple of self-proclaimed "experts" who not only didn't address the question, or contribute anything positive, but simply announced that they were happy with how THEY do their own canning and that THEY wouldn't use a separate canning kitchen if it were their house.

That wasn't the question. The question was about how best to DESIGN a seasonal canning kitchen given a list of parameters I had to work with. The decision of WHETHER to build one had already been made.

Odd though that the most helpful and insightful suggestions didn't come from the people busy patting themselves on the back for their decades of canning expertise. Kinda makes you chuckle, eh?



John

 

[velochic]

John, I'm not patting myself on the back about my canning experience. I made a GOOD suggestion. What would be the point of having a separate space for canning if you couldn't properly have climate control to store them? I do can as much or more than you do (depending on how my garden does), and I was offering what I thought was good advice. You're not going to get through 400+ quarts of marinara in a year, or probably even two and then if you are doing this every year, you are adding to your stash... how it is stored would be the NUMBER ONE concern of mine. Not if I had a separate space for the canning. And you, yourself, said it was a "small cabin". I would think storage would be of utmost importance.

Here's my only suggestion on the design as I'm not about to offer any other kind of suggestion. I'm assuming your "40 quart" canner is the AA 41.5 quart. That's going to be up to 100lbs filled. Rather than a cooktop that has a certain number of burners, I would be thinking about a cooktop that can hold the weight and has the power to bring the canner to temp in a reasonable amount of time. That's my only suggestion.

Also... sorry I had a deadline and wasn't here 2 weeks ago to answer your post. I'll be sure to make it a priority in the future.

 

[Diavolicchio]

John, I'm not patting myself on the back about my canning experience. I made a GOOD suggestion. What would be the point of having a separate space for canning if you couldn't properly have climate control to store them?

I wasn't looking for a suggestion regarding whether or not to can in my main kitchen. I was looking for advice on how to design a separate canning kitchen within the 8' x 7' parameters I've got to work with.

And what would lead you to believe that I didn't already have the issue of climate controlled storage already addressed? I even addressed it earlier in this exact thread. Did you not read it?

how it is stored would be the NUMBER ONE concern of mine. Not if I had a separate space for the canning. And you, yourself, said it was a "small cabin". I would think storage would be of utmost importance.

Proper storage IS of utmost importance. And that issue has already been addressed and dealt with. That's why there was no reason to go into it further.

Here's my only suggestion on the design as I'm not about to offer any other kind of suggestion. I would be thinking about a cooktop that can hold the weight and has the power to bring the canner to temp in a reasonable amount of time. That's my only suggestion.

I'm going with a cooktop that has the power to bring the canner to temp in a reasonable amount of time. The primary (central) burner on the cooktop can produce 18,000 BTUs. Again, this was ALSO mentioned previously in this thread, and a photo of the particular model to be used was posted.

Let's consider this thread dead.


Cheers.



John

 

[velochic]

And what would lead you to believe that I didn't already have the issue of climate controlled storage already addressed? I even addressed it earlier in this exact thread. Did you not read it?

You hadn't said anything in your original post about this, which is why MY first post was about enough climate controlled storage in a small cottage.

Proper storage IS of utmost importance. And that issue has already been addressed and dealt with. That's why there was no reason to go into it further.

However, your original post didn't say anything about that, and as good as we are here, we're not mind-readers.

I'm going with a cooktop that has the power to bring the canner to temp in a reasonable amount of time. The primary (central) burner on the cooktop can produce 18,000 BTUs. Again, this was ALSO mentioned previously in this thread, and a photo of the particular model to be used was posted.

My point was that the canner you are using is going to be about 100lbs and was asking if the cooktop could produce the power AND hold a heavy canner every day for hours on end. Obviously anything anyone has to say is met with your disdain. You're right, the discussion is over.

 

[Diavolicchio]

You hadn't said anything in your original post about this, which is why MY first post was about enough climate controlled storage in a small cottage.

You may find it more prudent in the future to ask specifics about a situation if you're not sure of them, rather than making a bunch of erroneous assumptions. A small cottage doesn't necessarily mean limited food storage. If you're not sure, ask.

However, your original post didn't say anything about that, and as good as we are here, we're not mind-readers.

My original post may not have directly addressed this issue, but your last post occurred after these issues about climate controlled storage had already been addressed. No one is expecting you to read minds, but rather simply to read the whole thread before posting your response.

My point was that the canner you are using is going to be about 100lbs and was asking if the cooktop could produce the power AND hold a heavy canner every day for hours on end.

Yes, and yes. And these particular issues were addressed earlier in this thread. Actually, I'd originally considered using a cooktop that would buckle under a 100 lb pot of sauce just for the joy of having to clean it up.

I think you'll find it a more productive use of your time to actually read an entire thread to see what has transpired since you may first have responded to it. Often the points you attempt to address have already been discussed and put to bed, rendering them moot.



John

 

[GB]

I have found that when asking for advice the proper way to handle responses is to thank the poster even if they answered a question you did not ask. Getting adversarial certainly does not do you any good.

John you started off on a bit of a nasty tone when seemingly getting upset that no one had responded to your thread. You asked if people here had any canning experience. People then responded with their experience and instead of taking from it what you could you proceeded to get upset with those people because they did not give you what you were looking for. Have you heard the expression you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?

 

[Diavolicchio]

Have you heard the expression you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?

I think the bigger issue here is the folly of attempting to reason with flies.

No worries.



John

 

[GB]

Well I wish you luck in life with that attitude. You will need it.

 

[Diavolicchio]

I appreciate the support.


John