A kitchen feeding 100 people needs four pieces of equipment: a wood-fired cookstove that burns small wood completely, large vessels of 5-15 gallons, an outdoor fire for overflow work, and a masonry bread oven. Together they burn about 70-100 pounds of dry wood a day, so fuel-efficient design matters more than the number of pots.
Community cooking equipment is the set of stoves, ovens and large vessels sized to heat food for dozens to over a hundred people at once from wood fuel.
Equipment Is Chosen By The Job And By The Wood It Burns
A home hearth or open campfire cooks for a family; for 100 people it wastes fuel and gives no control of heat. The parent guide recommends a rocket-type mass cooker for the main stove: an insulated combustion chamber with a vertical burn tunnel that forces complete combustion, and a flat top for large pots. It claims about 75% less wood than an open fire for the same task. Note that the corpus guide on Rocket Stove Design gives 60-70% less, so plan on a saving somewhere in that range rather than a fixed 75%.
What You Need
| Item | Role | Source of size |
|---|---|---|
| Rocket-type cookstove | Heats large pots for soups, stews, porridge, boiling water | Parent: heats a 15-gallon pot to boiling |
| 10-15 gallon cauldrons | Soups, stews, porridge | Parent |
| 5-gallon pots | Beans, rice, grains | Parent |
| Outdoor fire pit or second surface | Overflow, hot weather, wash-water heating | Parent |
| Masonry bread oven | Daily bread, then beans, then drying | Parent: 36-48 in floor, 10-15 loaves a firing |
| Long-handled wooden paddles | Stirring | Parent |
The Fuel Budget Is The Design Constraint
The parent’s fuel figures for 100 people are about 15-20 lb of dry wood per meal at the rocket stove and about 40-60 lb per bread-oven firing, with one or two firings a day. Its daily total of 70-100 lb is consistent with two stove meals plus one firing (2 × 15-20 = 30-40 lb, plus 40-60 lb, giving 70-100 lb). Three stove meals plus two firings would be 125-180 lb, so the daily total depends on that assumption. Over a year, 70-100 lb a day is 25,550-36,500 lb, about 12.8-18.3 short tons, which matches the parent’s 12-18 tons.
Method: Choose Equipment In This Order
Step 1: Start with the largest vessel you will cook in and size the stove top to carry it, with the flue and chimney sized to the fire. Details in Wood-Fired Cookstoves and Ovens.
Step 2: Choose the vessels. Cast iron or steel cauldrons of 10-15 gallons for the main meal; 5-gallon pots for grains and beans, which need separate attention (Large-Vessel Cooking).
Step 3: Add an outdoor fire for overflow work and hot-weather cooking (Outdoor Cooking Setups).
Step 4: Build the bread oven last, once flour supply and daily loaf need are known (Bread Ovens).
Common Mistakes
- Buying pots before the stove. A pot that does not fit the stove top sits on bricks and loses heat.
- Counting firewood by weight but not by drying. The figures above are for dry wood; wet wood burns smoky, wastes heat and makes more carbon monoxide.
- No salvage plan. The parent suggests salvaged hotel pans, stock pots and sheet pans; look for them before making vessels.
Safety
Fire and carbon monoxide come with every wood stove
A smokeless-looking rocket stove still makes carbon monoxide, which is colourless and odourless (Indoor Use & Ventilation). Vent the exhaust outside through a chimney, give the room permanent air inlets, and keep wood and cloth away from the stove body (Chimney & Stove Safety). Headache, nausea or drowsiness near a burning stove means put the fire out and go outside.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Wood-Fired Cookstoves and Ovens — the main stove in detail
- Combine with: Scaling for 30 vs 100 vs 150 People — matching equipment to headcount