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02/27/2014 11:29AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I have not done any baking in the BW before but am looking to try some this yr. I bought a jello mold and the middle comes up past the outer lip. I assume I need to cut this down some? Is there an optimal gap between the edge height and the inner cone height? If you are baking on good coals do you get a smoky flavoring? Does anyone put a thermometer on the grill for gauging temp(assuming the interior of the mold would get this hot also)?
 
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billconner
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02/27/2014 06:35PM  
I don't think it matters that the center comes up higher as long as the pie or cake tin on top is clear of the center chimney. The hot air needs to rise through core and cook from top. I have heard of a thermometer through the top but I'd think it would have to not be center.

I've only used a jmo on a gas stove - whisper light at first but dragonfly now. Not sure how it would work on coals - seems like too hot on bottom and not enough heat on top. Others may have different experience.
 
02/28/2014 02:51AM  
Never used mine on the wood fire, but thinking it might get to hot and "darken" the bottom of what your cooking really well. My stove is one of the old single burner coleman models and turned down to the lowest setting it works great, no need for a temp gauge just check it regularly, lots of good treats keep portage monkeys happy. FRED
 
goaljohnbill
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02/28/2014 09:48AM  
quote 1964James: " ...I bought a jello mold and the middle comes up past the outer lip... "


I bought one that was the same way cause it was all I could find used after a lot of searching. I drilled some holes instead of cutting it down I didnt want the entire edge exposed and sharp. I used a dremel grinder tip on the holes to smooth them out some.

It also took me a long time to find any type of lid that would cover the edges and leave the middle more open. What I finally found was disposable 10" pie pans. I have an 9" mold so 9" pans sit on the edge fold instead of all the way over. Havnt tried cooking with them yet but they do sit on the pan the way I want.
 
OldFingers57
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02/28/2014 10:10AM  
quote 1964James: "I have not done any baking in the BW before but am looking to try some this yr. I bought a jello mold and the middle comes up past the outer lip. I assume I need to cut this down some? Is there an optimal gap between the edge height and the inner cone height? If you are baking on good coals do you get a smoky flavoring? Does anyone put a thermometer on the grill for gauging temp(assuming the interior of the mold would get this hot also)?"


If the middle of your JM comes up higher than the sides then you should have no problem, as the heat is still going to get to the inside of it just coming in from the outer edge/sides rather than the middle. A to using coals you just need to watch the heat. Yes a oven thermometer would be a good idea or the hand method of figuring the temp. If you use a stove then you are going to get more heat up thru the center than the sides and I suggest you use a heat diffuser with the stove method.
The hand method of figuring temps is the following:
500 degrees - 1-2 sec
400 - 3-4 sec
300 - 6 sec
200 - 7-10 sec

 
02/28/2014 10:50AM  
Yes, exactly! Trying to keep the portage monkeys happy. When I was a kid it was the snack packs in the aluminum cans (before ban). Boy I did a lot for one of those little things.
 
OldFingers57
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02/28/2014 11:26AM  
Have you thought about buying or making a small reflector oven? Rutabaga has the Svante Frieden reflector oven. They are a great little oven even small enough to take backpacking.
 
OldFingers57
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03/01/2014 09:53AM  
Another idea for you to use for baking is either a Bakepacker type oven which uses steam heat. You can either buy one of make your own out of an old aluminum ski pole cut into pieces. Or another idea is a making a aluminum pie pan dutch oven. I used to use this method to cook biscuits and rolls for our scout troop. It's light weight and easy to put together from items you get at a thrift store.
 
03/03/2014 10:30AM  
1964,

I agree with Bill c, if your top lid is higher than your center section, you are good to go, also you can drill holes around the perimiter of the center section, if it is close. You certainly can cook on coals, and put them on top of the JMO, but this can be messy, and really would require another tool, a shovel, to get the coals in the right pile. If they are coals, smoke is no issue. The trick will be managing the heat, less is best at the beginning. I use a thermometer some times, and I use silicone to insulate the oven.

I use mine over a stove, it is just a lot easier to control things.

Also, you need to practice with recipe sizing for your specific mold, prior to going. You want just the right amount of recipe, size wise. So practice up, and you will be right for the trip, both heat and recipe size wise. It is great to have on a trip.

 
billconner
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03/03/2014 05:20PM  
For a stove only person like me a JMO is hard to beat. I use to use the bake packer but I like crust and there is no crust or brown at all with a bake packer.
 
OldFingers57
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03/03/2014 06:33PM  
Plus not having the crust or browning action food tastes different when steam baked. This is due to the sugars not carmelizing (the crust/browning action).
 
OldFingers57
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03/04/2014 06:06AM  
Another thing you could do is instead of using a cake pan use a pie pan that rises up more and doesn't sit flat on the jello mold. you'd have to try some different sizes and brands of pie pans to see what would work best. i would think though if the sides of the Jello mold are lower you just need to make sure more of your heat is on the outer part of the mold so the heat comes in from the sides instead of the middle cone area.
 
TeamTuna06
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03/04/2014 10:09PM  
What do you guys use on the bottom to diffuse the heat from hitting the jello mold directly? I used a JMO for the first time last summer and it worked great...until the pie tin that I put the jello mold in (which sat directly on my stove) began to melt. I'm going to try something more sturdy, but also figure that I should check how much heat you all use when baking. I think I had my stove on a medium setting and it still seemed too high. Any thoughts?
 
billconner
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03/05/2014 06:45AM  
I don't use anything. Jello mold right on Dragonfly. Medium low or lower. A pizza is 20-30 minutes, a cake mix 45 or so. No burning and baked pretty evenly. Im trying to understand what melted. The pie tin is the top, and I think it works because the mold funnels hot air to above the food.
 
goaljohnbill
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03/05/2014 09:00AM  
quote billconner: "I don't use anything. Jello mold right on Dragonfly. Medium low or lower. A pizza is 20-30 minutes, a cake mix 45 or so. No burning and baked pretty evenly. Im trying to understand what melted. The pie tin is the top, and I think it works because the mold funnels hot air to above the food."


+1 directly on Dragonfly on LOOOOWWWWWW

The only thing Ive ever burned this way was the 1st muffin I did with my stove tamer on while someone elses dragonfly was running w/o a tamer. I couldnt hear mine well and turned it too the same "noise lvl" as normal... bad idea ended up with a giant "donut hockey puck".
 
OldFingers57
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03/05/2014 11:59AM  
quote TeamTuna06: "What do you guys use on the bottom to diffuse the heat from hitting the jello mold directly? I used a JMO for the first time last summer and it worked great...until the pie tin that I put the jello mold in (which sat directly on my stove) began to melt. I'm going to try something more sturdy, but also figure that I should check how much heat you all use when baking. I think I had my stove on a medium setting and it still seemed too high. Any thoughts?"


There are multiple things you can use as a heat diffuser under the jello mold. Some use the heat reflectors like what's under a burner on a home kitchen stove. Some use the heat diffuser like you get with an Outback Oven. Some use other diffusers.
 
03/16/2014 10:44PM  
If you are baking over the coals, no diffuser needed. My cake pan has a decent lip on it, sits up close to an inch high. You definitely do need air circulating up from that center hole, so if your center is too high you will need to cut it down some.

I have never noticed any sort of smokey flavor to anything.
 
schweady
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07/26/2014 05:07PM  
On the two aluminum molds that I picked up this afternoon, the height of center tube was nearly even with that of the outer edge. (Seems perfectly logical if you are filling the mold with Jello, I suppose...) I applied some steady but gentle downward pressure with my thumbs on the top of the center tube while pulling up on the outside of the outer walls. Going all the way around the mold a couple of times, I reshaped it enough to gain a 1/8-1/4 inch lower height. This should certainly be enough gap to eliminate the need for holes to be drilled around the top of that inner ring.
 
billconner
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07/26/2014 06:51PM  
Schweady - what do you use for a lid that it would matter. I've used a round cake tin and a pie pan - both of which ate much higher over tube in the center when rim rests on edge of jmo.
 
schweady
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07/28/2014 10:44PM  
billconner - I'm planning to use the largest cover/pan from our cook set. It's slightly larger diameter than the jello mold, therefore its flat bottom would sit flush on the tops of both rings if they were both the same height. Lowering the inside ring allows heat to flow over it and across the top of the food unimpeded. Drilled holes are then only needed around the top of the outside ring.
 
billconner
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07/29/2014 05:57AM  
OK - my largest pot lid is too small but I can see that. I do like the volume of hot air I get with the "domed" pie pan lid. But now you've got me. Why holes in outside?
 
schweady
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07/29/2014 11:28AM  
quote billconner: "But now you've got me. Why holes in outside? "

To allow heat to flow evenly across the top of the food: up the jello mold's center tube, past the gap between the center tube's top and the cover pan, across the food, and out the holes drilled in the jello mold's outer edge. Without those holes around the outer ring, the heat would be trapped where the larger, flat bottomed cover pan rests on the jello mold outer top edge, eliminating the desired convection.
 
sdebol
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07/29/2014 12:35PM  
I'm no JMO expert, but I humbly suggest that drilling holes around the outer edge or inner cone of the jello mold may not be necessary. Last fall I was experimenting with different lid combinations (one where the edges of the lid and mold line up so the lid sits on top with head space vs one that is wider so the lid makes a tight seal over mold and hangs over the edge. I paired these lids with two different jello molds: one with holes drilled around the outer edge vs one without (both the same size).

This is the kind of thing I do for fun! =8^o

FWIW, I really didn't observe much of a difference between the various combinations. I use a WindPro stove with a small diffuser plate and keep the stove simmering as low as possible.

Not doubting the benefit that others have obtained, but you might just want to try your particular JMO setup to see how it works before going to the trouble of drilling the holes...

Happy baking!

 
billconner
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07/29/2014 12:41PM  
Never knew that and has always worked great with no holes. No diffuser either. I just assumed the air under the dome was all heated pretty evenly and that resulted in more baking from top, and browning, just like oven in my range. I'd be afraid the holes would let heat out and less crispy mozzarella and pepperoni, or less crusty cakes and muffins.
 
billconner
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07/29/2014 03:14PM  
Maybe that is what I'm missing but I'm with sdebol. My JMO and the lid have wide rims that match. First photo shows rim of JMO and second photo shows goods in the pie pan top.





 
schweady
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07/31/2014 09:40PM  
quote billconner: "Never knew that and has always worked great with no holes. No diffuser either. I just assumed the air under the dome was all heated pretty evenly and that resulted in more baking from top, and browning, just like oven in my range. I'd be afraid the holes would let heat out and less crispy mozzarella and pepperoni, or less crusty cakes and muffins. "


Well, then... lucky me. I can do a side-by-side test next week.

 
billconner
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08/01/2014 06:01AM  
It is dependent on the lid. I think a flat pot lid allows less baking than one that is more domed. Omnia Stove
 
schweady
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08/01/2014 10:30AM  
quote billconner: "It is dependent on the lid. I think a flat pot lid allows less baking than one that is more domed. Omnia Stove "

Possibly. But I also noticed this in the copy for the Omnia: 'A few air holes in the lid allow steam to escape.'
 
billconner
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08/01/2014 06:47PM  
Thinking about it, a number of things expand or rise to abovvve the rim, like cakes,so flat would not work for me.
 
schweady
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08/02/2014 01:05PM  
quote billconner: "Thinking about it, a number of things expand or rise to abovvve the rim, like cakes,so flat would not work for me."

Yup. Just gotta reduce the recipe.
 
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