Outdoor kitchen

I am in the process of buying three acres and a house in Kansas.

One of the things I would eventually like to do is to build an outdoor kitchen. I have a few ideas, but I'd like some help brainstorming.

I know I want a baking/pizza oven (I've done a baking oven before and have some ideas for improvements)
I need a sink and a composting bin of some kind.

My brainstorming list at this point:

stand for the solar oven (on top of the baking oven?) and cabinet for it
dedicated cooking utensils (pans and such) in their own cabinet
sink (water source?)
Butcher block/counter
Smoker
enclosed compost bin
ice chest (insulated cabinet with a space for ice around the inner bowl)
doubles as a warmer if no ice
enclosed wood storage

What else could go in the outdoor kitchen? I'm looking at 0 power solutions. Just trying to think of what COULD be in this space.

Ideas?

Your list looks good to me.

If I were building one I would use this as an example:

https://permies.com/t/164923/rocket-ovens/Build-Black-White-Rocket-Oven

I'm also thinking about building a serious outdoor kitchen. My priorities are a little simpler than yours:

Cob pizza oven for baking

Raised area for charcoal cooking/BBQing with permanent grill

Counter space for food prep

Sink and draining area

Rack for plates, cups and utensils

Firewood storage

Low roof over oven and at least some of the prep area

I figure that these items give me a usable kitchen without taking up too much space or requiring the land to be changed too much (which, for me, is important on several levels).

The oven could be used for pizza/bread/cake as well as casseroles. It could also double as a smoker or even a dehydrator. The grill can be used as a BBQ or as a burner ring, for pans.

This guy, Abell To on YouTube, is building a simple outdoor kitchen at the moment. It's a nice roundwood design.

My list is pretty similar using Thomas’ oven design Anne linked to instead of Luke’s cobb oven. I’d also like to include a bar with high stools which gives somewhere for the folks to sit while I work my magic in the kitchen part. (And keep them from interfering or getting in the way!)

Have you thought of solar and battery? You could use it for lighting, cool the cooler when it’s needed?

Apart from the roofed area have you thought about shade? I plan on having a pergola or two frames with wires and growing climbers to provide natural dappled shade in the summer.

Edward Norton wrote:Have you thought of solar and battery? You could use it for lighting, cool the cooler when it’s needed?

Apart from the roofed area have you thought about shade? I plan on having a pergola or two frames with wires and growing climbers to provide natural dappled shade in the summer.

As planned (and subject to change!) the kitchen will be on the north side of the house. I'm running into some problems with that, since I plan on using the solar oven consistently, but at least I'll have a little bit of shade. Another possibility is to do a framework on the south side and run grape vines over it. Not sure which I'll use, as this is in the early planning stage.

Such fun!  We designed one here and it sounds fairly similar to what you're wanting to do.  We added a living roof to our design and a rainwater catchment system.

I'm waiting for my son to return home to build it.  We designed it together over Zoom during quarantine.

We were originally inspired by this image, which reminds us all here of Bulgaria.

My husband and I are building  our home, and have an area planned for an outdoor kitchen.  I've been trying to figure out all of these same things - what are the necessary elements?  It's going to be located right off the indoor kitchen, so I can use both easily.  I want to be able to dry extra dishes there, for one.

Our want list:

- a countertop with sink
- a rocket mass oven on one side for baking
- a rocket cookstove area - to clarify - not a rocket mass cooktop, but a simple rocket stove that could be used to cook something very quickly
- a solar dehydrator
- a haybox

And I'm so on the fence about the solar oven.  I haven't seen one that makes a lot of sense to me as far as how I'd use it.  I think a built-in haybox would be better for me.  But it seems such a waste to not use solar cooking if we are going to all this trouble of designing this outdoor kitchen.  Argh.  I need to go through more of the threads here with the solar cookers.  

My issues so far are that most look really dinky, as in flimsy. The less flimsy ones seem so expensive.  Making one that looks durable seems tricky to get all the metal angled up well. And I'd want a cover so it didn't fill with sand.  They seem take up a lot of room for what you get - just the ability to cook something in a pot, right?  But the free energy part keeps me looking at it again.

I like my solar oven. I can babysit it to bake a cake or a loaf of bread (exact temperatures for an exact period), or just set and forget if I'm cooking dinner in it.

When I do long cooking I set the slant for the time I actually want it to cook, and then it just keeps whatever it is warm for the rest of the time. For example, if I want lunch at noon I want it cooking between 10 and 11, then a slow cool down between 11 and 12. Still plenty warm at noon for lunch.

It's flexible enough to cook bread, a cake, and dinner all in the same day.

The plan is to eventually create a permanent solar oven as part of the outdoor kitchen, but for now I use the one I bought.

I would probably have the reflective surface set on a lazy susan type of thing, designed to tilt at the proper angle for the sun. So set it for 9:00 AM and the slant is much more pronounced, set for noon and it's almost flat. Beyond that I really haven't thought about it.

I suppose you could even have your haybox and just set up a reflector for the heat source.

Lauren Ritz wrote:
I would probably have the reflective surface set on a lazy susan type of thing, designed to tilt at the proper angle for the sun. So set it for 9:00 AM and the slant is much more pronounced, set for noon and it's almost flat. Beyond that I really haven't thought about it.

I suppose you could even have your haybox and just set up a reflector for the heat source.

Thanks for this feedback! Great ideas, and it's very encouraging to me to hear from people who know how to use them.

So...

If designed properly, the smoker could be part of the rocket oven. The counter space could cover both the cooler and the compost, and depending on design possibly the sink as well. Rain catchment of course needs to be near the sink but also (ideally) under the counter space. Or should it be somehow above the sink so there's gravity feed?

I don't like the idea of a traditional BBQ, but the rocket oven could be altered to accommodate a grill-type cooktop. That worked quite well on my last one. Firewood storage goes next to the BBQ/smoker/rocket oven, which feeds into the counter space. Then solar dehydrator and solar oven (haybox?) beside the sink on the other side, with the oven's permanent spot on top of the dehydrator. But as long as I have a separate solar oven it needs a safe place to hide, so another counter with cabinets underneath.

Looks like a half circle with the ideas presented so far. I could have ALL THE THINGS! :)

If you have additional ideas, list them. Brainstorming knows no limits. In a sense.