Burner BTU capacity for kettle cooking?

[LVaughn]

I'm looking again at the old "butcher kettle" that I restored last year, if I recall correctly it held about 8 gallons of water when I filled it up. I'd like to take it to gatherings to cook jambalaya, popcorn, and other things in. What BTU range of burners should I be looking at to cook in this large kettle?
Here are a couple of photos from last year, not quite finished in the last pic, but you get the idea.

 

[Scott J.]

I recommend a BIG burner. I have a couple of Banjo Burners I use for homebrewing and my Jambalaya pot. My Jambalaya pot is only 3 gallons so the big burner can be turned down a bit. You will want every bit of it for an 8 gallon pot.

You can get the burner alone or with a stand. Most stands are for flat bottom pots. You can see in the first picture that my Jambalaya pot has its own stand.

Cast Iron Banjo Burner

This High Pressure Cast Iron Burner is a replacement burner for Bayou Classic® Banjo Cookers. Features and Benefits: Large 10-in Burner x 15-in Length Air Control Disc Brass Orifice Connector, 3/8-in Flare Fitting Wide Range of Flame Control - from a bare simmer to high flame High...

www.bayouclassic.com

 

[LVaughn]

That is a big burner putting out some serious BTU's! I had actually looked at this same burner but thought it might be overkill, maybe I'll reconsider that. With your 3 gallon pot do you use it on "high" very often? 3 gallons is still a lot of Jambalaya!

 

[Scott J.]

One of the things I like about the big burner is that it distributes the heat over a large area. My first big turkey fryer burner (see picture) I used for home brewing always seemed to leave scorched spots in the middle of my brew pot (stainless). I can turn the big burner down a bit and still get lots of BTUs but distributed and less likely to leave hot spots. It's probably better for heating cast iron for the same reason. The only time I really crank up the burner when making Jambalaya is when I add the chicken stock. The big burner gets the liquid boiling again fairly quickly. One of the things I learned from homebrewing is that a 1 hour boil can easily turn into significantly more time while waiting for the liquid to come up to temperature.

Burner 3 label on the picture is me being lazy. The Burner 3 in my previous post is the big Banjo Burner.

 

[Scott J.]

Since this is generally in Cooking in Cast Iron......
I don't fill the kettle. The amount shown is with 1 Lb Andouille, 1 Lb chicken thighs, approx 12 to 16 oz of Tasso, the trinity, 5 cups of rice, 10 cups of homemade chicken stock, spices etc. I can get chicken bones for the stock at the Local Cajun Ed's Hebert's Specialty Meats, the same place I get the Andouille and Tasso.

Cajun Ed's Specialty Meats | Turducken, Cajun Food / Creole Restaurant

www.hebertsmeats.com

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