Peanut butter is made in eight steps: receive the peanuts, roast them, cool them fast, blanch off the skins, sort out bad nuts, grind, mix in salt or honey if the recipe has them, then fill, cap, label and code the jars. Roasting is the step everything hangs on. Raw peanuts can carry Salmonella, and the roast at the time and temperature your process sets is what kills it, so the roaster's temperature and time are recorded for every batch. Everything after the roast has to keep the roasted nuts from picking anything back up: separate raw and roasted areas, cleaned equipment, covered bins. Peanuts are a major allergen, so the label declares them, and a kitchen that also grinds almonds keeps the two apart or cleans between them. In the example below, a small Arkansas maker runs 600 jars of peanut butter in a day.
The short version
- Eight steps: receive, roast, cool, blanch, sort, grind, mix, fill and code.
- Roasting is the kill step: record its temperature and time for every batch.
- After the roast, keep roasted peanuts away from raw ones and anything unclean.
- Cool fast after roasting so the nuts stop cooking and don't sweat.
- Grind to the texture you want; watch the temperature at the grinder.
- Peanuts are a major allergen; clean between peanut and other nut butters.
- TaroStack records each batch with its roast readings, its lot and its peanut lot. More below.
The eight steps
| Step | What happens | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Receive | Peanuts checked, with the supplier's certificate, and given a lot | Supplier, lot, weight |
| 2. Roast | Roasted to the time and temperature in your process | Roaster temperature, time |
| 3. Cool | Spread or fan-cooled quickly | Time to cool |
| 4. Blanch | Skins rubbed off, if the recipe calls for it | Weight after blanching |
| 5. Sort | Dark, shriveled and broken nuts removed | Weight removed |
| 6. Grind | Ground smooth or crunchy | Grinder temperature, texture |
| 7. Mix | Salt, honey or oil added by weight | Weights, ingredient lots |
| 8. Fill and code | Filled, capped, labeled, lot and best-by on each jar | Jars, lot, best-by |
The co-manufacturing choice is in co-manufacturing vs co-packing, and the costs in nut butter business plan.
An example: a 600-jar day
Red Oak Nut Butters, a made-up nut butter maker in Little Rock, Arkansas, makes honey peanut butter in 12 oz jars in a shared kitchen. Its process sets the roast at 325°F for 20 minutes per tray. One Thursday:
| Step | What happened |
|---|---|
| Receive | 520 lb of runner peanuts, lot RP-1014, with the supplier's certificate |
| Roast | 26 trays at 325°F, 20 to 21 minutes each |
| Cool | Fanned to room temperature in 15 minutes a tray |
| Blanch and sort | 492 lb after skins and 8 lb of dark nuts out |
| Grind | Smooth, grinder outlet under 160°F |
| Mix | 9.8 lb of honey, 3.7 lb of salt per 480 lb |
| Fill and code | 600 jars, lot PB-1017, best by Oct 2027; 6 rejected for low fill |
Each jar holds 12 oz, so 600 jars is 450 lb; the rest of the 492 lb went to tasting, the grinder's last pass and the rejects. Almond butter runs on Fridays, after a full clean of the grinder and filler, and the peanut label reads "Contains: peanuts". The co-manufacturer quote for this same peanut butter is in nut butter co-packer.
Get the run sheet
Download the peanut butter production run sheet. Two sheets: a blank run sheet to print for each batch, with the eight steps, the check at each and its target, and spaces for the actual reading, the time and initials; and the same run filled in from the example. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The run sheet covers one day. When a peanut supplier recalls a lot, the question is which batches used RP-1014 and which stores got their jars, and that runs across many sheets.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack records each batch with its roast readings, its lot and its ingredient lots.
Batches from the recipe. A batch of honey peanut butter takes peanuts, honey, salt and jars off stock by the recipe, and the actual amounts can be changed when the day differs.
Your own fields. Fields of your own on the batch record hold the roaster temperature and time and the grinder temperature, on a phone in the kitchen or on a printed form.
Lots both ways. The batch records the peanut lot it used, and each store's order records the jar lot it got, so one recall report runs from RP-1014 to every shelf.
| The job | Binder | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Roast temperature and time | A sheet by the roaster | Fields on the batch record |
| Which peanuts went into a batch | Written, maybe | Lots on the batch |
| Which stores got a lot | Invoices | One recall report |
| What a jar costs | A guess | True cost from the recipe and batch |
Recipes, batches, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.