new pipe break in / bowl coating question

I just smoke whatever I smoke, and it works for me.
I agree with Darin though, smoke a full bowl, so I am less inclined to load up something like Captain Black Grape that will be dumped after a few puffs.

I like to thin a little bit of honey with rum and wipe it in the bowl and let it dry before smoking the first bowl. It cuts the break-in to almost nothing and starts building carbon immediately. Plus, I can't ever to remember to "take it easy".

Been using Carter Hall for years. Never tried the honey n ash method, wouldn't have any useful feedback on it.

Like Charlie, I don't let my bowls get a massive cake build up, but I definitely notice they smoke cooler (the outer bowl temp) once I've smoked several bowls of CH.

Briar needs a cake in my modest opinion.
I smoke the pipe with a full bowl. Tobacco a bit on the dry side will help built a good cake and reduce potential, unnecessary heating. I do pay attention to that as I smoke it the first 6 - 8 times and go real easy on the puffing 'cause an over heating pipe the first few times is potentially not good. When the pipe starts feeling a bit hot I let it cool down a bit.
I don't try to smoke the tobacco all the way down. When it starts tasting bad and I have to relight 4 - 5 times and it doesn't really keep lit, I start stirring the tobacco and ashes to insure, as much as I can, that they coat the pipe to the bottom. Then I dump the remaining concoction and let the pipe dry enough time before I smoke it again.
I do the stirring drill every time I smoke my pipes, but that's me. Some don't do it, they just stir, dump et voilà.
I wouldn't smoke the pipe outside especially if it's windy until it has a decent cake which is, for me, the width of a dime. The briar
doesn't really need more. In fact, if it becomes too thick the tobacco will become tasteless.

I'm pretty much a load it and smoke it piper. My pipes don't have any measurable cake in them, although after a few bowls they do seem to take a set with a light char. After a smoke I run a cleaner through the stem, and a paper towel in the bowl. Any estate pipes get the cake scraped out with a knife, and smoked as above.

I could be doing things wrong, so: YMMV.

I tend to smoke so little that I think it's going to take forever to build any kind of cake in my pipes.

oldcajun123 that is one of the wisest things I've heard lately!

I load them & smoke them.
I am lazy and just a smoker, so I run a cleaner (or several till clean) through about every 4-5 times & fold the pipe cleaner in half & do the bowl.
Don't pay attention to the way I do it.

I'm maybe "old fashion", but I always only fill 1/3 of the bowl the first 5 to 6 bowls, then slowly fill higher and after about 10 bowls I start fill it normally.
For me, it's not about the thickness of the cake, there make the pipe taste good and smoke smooth, but how the inside wall in the chamber get pre-smoked.
If you, on an old pipe look at the rim, there is always some cake there on the top, even you don't smoke tobacco on the rim. It come from the smoke under the smoking process and slowly build up on the rim. The same happens when I start with only 1/3 filled bowl in the chamber, then the smoke slowly "harden" the wall in the rest of the chamber and set the first thin layer of cake. I feel the pipe get a better taste on this way, where the wood slowly get broken in and give the smooth smoke. Another plus with the 1/3 bowl is, that it's more easy to smoke all tobacco to the white ash, which also set some cake in the bottom of the chamber and the pipe get dry and fresh to next time. Then when the pipe are full broken in, it's more easy to smoke the pipe to the bottom, whiteout it get harsh, which I prefer all time. It's just my way to break a pipe in and it works for me, but I think another's way to do also works fine.