STOP ME BEFORE I SHOP AGAIN
Oct. 18th, 2011 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleI'm thinking of adding a blast chiller/freezer to the commercial kitchen. There appears to be a robust demand for top quality frozen convenience foods, but it is nearly impossible to produce them in quantity armed with only a chest freezer. Chest freezers are very efficient, but very slow - put a hot pan of food in there and the whole contents of the freezer will melt. Even with pre-chilling in the fridge they are very limited in how fast they can freeze things, and in how much they can handle.
For about $10K I can get this undercounter blast chiller:
There is a perfect spot for it, and I can put a countertop oven on top of that. In my dreams, I would get a Rational combi-oven, which gives precise control over both temperature and humidity:
These are REALLY expensive. But compared to what I've sunk in so far... for just a bit more the kitchen becomes a fairly serious production facility with much, much greater throughput.
Of course it makes no sense to do this while I'm already having procrastination issues on much more lucrative work. The lure of Big Toys is way too seductive. I'm not 100% sure how committed I am to this idea, and the actual practice of food production has been kind of stressful. Then again, it's been kind of stressful in part because of insufficient capacity at key steps.
There is also the risk of a big economic disruption, and the concern that intangible assets (money, stocks) are kind of uncertain right now, so since we have the cash on hand maybe this is actually not a bad thing to park it in. I can imagine some kinds of food service that would be very popular in a depression economy. Beans, anyone?
I think if I did this I would want to hire other people to do the work and focus on recipe development / management myself. Which would be kind of interesting. There are several underemployed people on the ranch who would love a job they don't have to commute for.
Hmmm.....
For about $10K I can get this undercounter blast chiller:
There is a perfect spot for it, and I can put a countertop oven on top of that. In my dreams, I would get a Rational combi-oven, which gives precise control over both temperature and humidity:
These are REALLY expensive. But compared to what I've sunk in so far... for just a bit more the kitchen becomes a fairly serious production facility with much, much greater throughput.
Of course it makes no sense to do this while I'm already having procrastination issues on much more lucrative work. The lure of Big Toys is way too seductive. I'm not 100% sure how committed I am to this idea, and the actual practice of food production has been kind of stressful. Then again, it's been kind of stressful in part because of insufficient capacity at key steps.
There is also the risk of a big economic disruption, and the concern that intangible assets (money, stocks) are kind of uncertain right now, so since we have the cash on hand maybe this is actually not a bad thing to park it in. I can imagine some kinds of food service that would be very popular in a depression economy. Beans, anyone?
I think if I did this I would want to hire other people to do the work and focus on recipe development / management myself. Which would be kind of interesting. There are several underemployed people on the ranch who would love a job they don't have to commute for.
Hmmm.....
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 02:17 am (UTC)Besides, the option is not between "food production" and "not food production". It's between "busy equipment" and "idle equipment". The sunk costs are not in the equation. Also, it's not just a retail market I'm looking at, it's also in support of a larger "experience" that may some day fetch really a lot of money. Think of rockstars who want to go mushroom collecting. A lot of this is speculative but it's not like I'm competing with Birdseye. This could be a very special niche.
Also, "thousands" would be on the low end of what I'm looking at. I think 100 meals/day is not an unreasonable target for this system.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 03:06 am (UTC)I mentioned to my coach today that "we live in a very frugal county". She snapped "See, you're already making excuses for yourself!"