Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

@cytero, I'm a charcoal girl all the way but I don't foil. To my taste, the best ribs aren't fall-apart tender; I like them when the meat still has some "chew," and a tug of the teeth pulls it cleanly off the bone. Your mileage may vary. :)

I cook ribs at around 230º (grid level temp), usually with a mix of hickory and apple wood for smoke - 3-4 hours for baby backs, 5-6 for spares.

@cytero, thanks for the tip. If I ever decide to absolve myself of my 30+ year addiction to gas, I'll try it. ;-)

Kidding aside, I never try to convince woodies or charheads to change to gas. It's everyone's own choice as to what they feel comfortable with.

(This messsage was written on a Mac, but only because my PC isn't turned on.)

Only specific cakes, i.e. Jerz's olive oil cake and carrot cakes, can be made with oil. (Was the olive oil cake the one featured here at SE?)

Don't waste anymore ingredients trying to recalculate a butter-based cake recipe to accommodate the use of oil. Google "cakes made with oil" or some such sentence and find cakes where oil is the fat of choice.

I love "tweaking" a recipe as much as the next person - tossing in a handful of raisins or chocolate chips - but your query only stands to prove that while "cooking is an art, baking is a science." There are just some changes and substitutions that will not work.

Each type has its place in baking. If you're looking for moist, subtly fruity and flavorful, go with olive oil where indicated. If you're imagining a tight crumb, a light texture, and flakiness go with butter.

You can usually substitute some oil for butter in more forgiving methods, such as quick breads and pound cakes, but if you're making anything more technical it's best to stick with what the recipe recommends. Otherwise the texture/taste of the finished product will not be ideal.

They are not interchangeable. Butter is a solid/plastic and although it melts, it is solid at room temperature. Especially if it's a cream-the-butter type cake, you will not get the same structure.

You're not supposed to use melted butter for oil, either, although I suspect the consequences are much less noticeable. Clarified butter would be a better choice in that case, though.

If you want to make a cake using oil, look for chiffon cakes, which are designed to use oil. I love them.

Maybe I'm wrong, but for me the associated "wok flavor," or "wok hay" as some say, comes from igniting the cooking oil with the heat source while tossing the food. I've seen a lot of referrals to the actual seasoning of the wok but if you've ever ignited cooking oil then you know the associated smell is equal to that of the "wok flavor."