# Cooking & Thermal Processing — RFQ template & spec checklist

_Generated by PostRequest (postrequest.io). Free to copy and adapt._

Cooking and thermal processing equipment brings product to a target temperature for texture, safety, or reaction: steam-jacketed and scraped-surface kettles, continuous cookers and coolers, batch and continuous ovens, fryers, blanchers, and steam tunnels. Buyers move into this category to launch a cooked product, add capacity, improve yield and consistency, or replace a hand-tended kettle line. Heat-transfer area, agitation, and temperature-control uniformity set product quality and cycle time, while cleanability sets uptime. Because vendors solve the same cook curve with very different geometries, three quotes let you weigh energy use, cook uniformity, and cleaning burden rather than just tank volume.

## What to include in your request
- [ ] Product, batch or continuous operation, and working volume or mass throughput per hour
- [ ] Cook curve: start and target temperature, ramp rate, hold time, and any controlled cool-down
- [ ] Product characteristics: viscosity, solids, particulates, and fouling or scorch tendency
- [ ] Agitation or scraped-surface needs and any shear limits on the product
- [ ] Contact materials and finish, and whether 3-A hygienic design and CIP apply to the wetted vessel
- [ ] Utilities: steam pressure and flow, or electric and gas heat input, plus the cooling medium
- [ ] Venting, hooding, and floor space, including clearance for tilt or discharge

## What drives the quote
- Heat-transfer area, jacket rating, and heat source
- Agitation or scraped-surface mechanism and drive
- Contact-part finish and hygienic certification
- Controls: recipe management, uniformity mapping, and data logging
- Continuous versus batch design and any integrated cooling stage

## Common spec mistakes to avoid
- Sizing on volume without the ramp and hold time that actually set cycle length
- Ignoring scorch and fouling tendency, so a plain jacket bakes product on between cleans
- Underrating steam supply, so the kettle cannot hold its ramp rate under full load
- Overlooking product shear limits when a scraped-surface or high-agitation unit is proposed
- Specifying heating carefully and leaving cool-down to chance, which stretches the cycle

## Lead time
Lead time depends on whether it is a catalog kettle or an engineered continuous cook-and-cool system with custom scraped-surface exchangers and controls. Jacketing, specialty finishes, and gas-fired burner packages add to it.

## Anonymity
Your request posts anonymized — suppliers see the category, spec, and state only. Name and contact details are shared with a supplier only if you choose to connect with their quote. No account required.

---
Post this as a request at https://postrequest.io/rfq/new?category=Cooking%20%26%20Thermal%20Processing
to get competing quotes from Cooking & Thermal Processing suppliers — anonymous until you connect.