Cake in a WSM
 

Todays my wife's birthday so I wanted to bake her a cake. Got everything
mixed and poured and ,dang it, the gas igniter on the oven died. The only
alternative was to cook it in the WSM. SO I got the coals going good and
hot. IT hit 350 degree and baked it per the box. She never new it was baked
over coals.

So my question: why didnt it come out with a smokey flavor? I was fully
expecting smokey chocalate cake. Can coals get so hot theres no smoke? Now
I'm tempted to try some bread,

Cake in a WSM
 

jmagerl wrote:

> Todays my wife's birthday so I wanted to bake her a cake. Got everything
> mixed and poured and ,dang it, the gas igniter on the oven died. The only
> alternative was to cook it in the WSM. SO I got the coals going good and
> hot. IT hit 350 degree and baked it per the box. She never new it was baked
> over coals.
>
> So my question: why didnt it come out with a smokey flavor? I was fully
> expecting smokey chocalate cake. Can coals get so hot theres no smoke? Now
> I'm tempted to try some bread,
>
>

That's a great story. I have no idea how you avoided getting any
smoke flavor. I can always seem to tell when something's been cooked
on a grill or smoker by the hint of smoke flavor that always seems
to come through.

I've done a "cake" before, myself. Kind of a baked alaska thing. A
layer each of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream covered in
merengue, cooked on high, indirect heat.

--
Reg

Cake in a WSM
 

jmagerl wrote:
> Todays my wife's birthday so I wanted to bake her a cake. Got everything
> mixed and poured and ,dang it, the gas igniter on the oven died. The only
> alternative was to cook it in the WSM. SO I got the coals going good and
> hot. IT hit 350 degree and baked it per the box. She never new it was baked
> over coals.
>
> So my question: why didnt it come out with a smokey flavor? I was fully
> expecting smokey chocalate cake. Can coals get so hot theres no smoke? Now
> I'm tempted to try some bread,
>
>

You could have lit the oven by hand. AFAIK most oven igniter's just
light a pilot. At least that's how mine works.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Cake in a WSM
 

"John Reber" > wrote in message
.. .
> jmagerl wrote:
>> Todays my wife's birthday so I wanted to bake her a cake. Got everything
>> mixed and poured and ,dang it, the gas igniter on the oven died. The only
>> alternative was to cook it in the WSM. SO I got the coals going good and
>> hot. IT hit 350 degree and baked it per the box. She never new it was
>> baked over coals.
>>
>> So my question: why didnt it come out with a smokey flavor? I was fully
>> expecting smokey chocalate cake. Can coals get so hot theres no smoke?
>> Now I'm tempted to try some bread,
>
> You could have lit the oven by hand. AFAIK most oven igniter's just light
> a pilot. At least that's how mine works.
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
>

Damn failsafe prevented lighting by hand

Cake in a WSM
 

"jmagerl" > wrote in message
> So my question: why didnt it come out with a smokey flavor? I was fully
> expecting smokey chocalate cake. Can coals get so hot theres no smoke? Now
> I'm tempted to try some bread,

In a perfect world, lump charcoal is pure carbon so there is no smoke, no
odor. When briquettes, you have more fillers, less wood, burning hotter
reduces the smoke, Couple that with the fact that the cake pan blocks all
smoke except the top, you'd have little if any, smoke flavor. Years ago,
all cooking was done over wood or coal.

Cake in a WSM
 

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
>
> "jmagerl" > wrote in message
>> So my question: why didnt it come out with a smokey flavor? I was fully
>> expecting smokey chocalate cake. Can coals get so hot theres no smoke?
>> Now I'm tempted to try some bread,
>
> In a perfect world, lump charcoal is pure carbon so there is no smoke, no
> odor. When briquettes, you have more fillers, less wood, burning hotter
> reduces the smoke, Couple that with the fact that the cake pan blocks all
> smoke except the top, you'd have little if any, smoke flavor. Years ago,
> all cooking was done over wood or coal.
>
And if your food tasted smoky you were considered a poor cook.
--
James A. "Big Jim" Whitten

www.lazyq.com

Cake in a WSM
 

On Oct 23, 4:55 pm, "Big Jim" > wrote:

>> Years ago, all cooking was done over wood or coal.
>
> And if your food tasted smoky you were considered a poor cook.

I have seen a couple of shows on one of the cooking channels that have
pizza joints that use coal fired ovens with open flames to cook their
pizzas. The guy doing the segment was astonished there was no smoke
taste.

Locally, there are still a few places that have the large wood fired
oven to make pizzas and cook other smaller things in them. I have had
pizza from the local pizzaria that cooks theirs in a mesquite fired
overn, and no mesquite taste at all. THAT was a disappointment.

Robert

Cake in a WSM
 

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> On Oct 23, 4:55 pm, "Big Jim" > wrote:
>
>>> Years ago, all cooking was done over wood or coal.
>>
>> And if your food tasted smoky you were considered a poor cook.
>
> I have seen a couple of shows on one of the cooking channels that have
> pizza joints that use coal fired ovens with open flames to cook their
> pizzas. The guy doing the segment was astonished there was no smoke
> taste.
>
> Locally, there are still a few places that have the large wood fired
> oven to make pizzas and cook other smaller things in them. I have had
> pizza from the local pizzaria that cooks theirs in a mesquite fired
> overn, and no mesquite taste at all. THAT was a disappointment.
>
> Robert
>

When you burn wood down to coals all the volatiles are burned off, so there
is nothing left to impart smoke flavor.
True whole hog or shoulders cooked direct over coals has no smokering or
smoky taste. You can taste the wood but it isn't smoky.
--
James A. "Big Jim" Whitten

www.lazyq.com