The pasta gets softer and softer - heat and wet. The same with wood.
Wet heat is good, dry heat is fine.
The reason to use wet heat is that steam is, as we know, nice and hot - but doesn't singe the wood. There are various cunning devices that use steam to heat wood. The first pictures on the page will look at the bog standard - a metal pipe welded up at one end, filled with water and put over a fire. It's nice to put some potatoes in the fire for lunch. Some fold, I believe, add some paraffin to the water for preservative.