wood question

The wood will last long enough to give you the smoky flavor.It is really cooking because of the electric burner, not because of the wood. There are some recent posts and lots if you do a Search on thermometers.

Slade, my Smokette came today and I ran it at 225* with two chunks of wood, each about 2 oz., for four hours to season it. It looked like about of half of the wood was still burning when I opened it. Kinda hard to believe, but the wood apparently will last much longer than you would think. I'm now in the process of cooking my first item in it, a Boston butt, and am using only 2 oz of wood. I was temped to use more, but everyone cautions to start with only about 2 oz (for the first cook) and gradually increase the amount of wood on future cooks to determine how much smoke you like. They talk like about 6 oz would be the max that anyone would ever use.

Slade, I went through the same learning process. I have learned over time, on the heavy cuts of meat like pork butts and briskets, you can fill your wood box. Ribs and chicken are different, use less. Ribs I use 3-4 oz. chicken, about the same. Just do some reading in this forum, you will learn alot. Keep in mind smoke is subjective. My wife likes a little....I like a lot.
Smoke N Italy

It will depend on the temp you set and the specific wood you use (dry, almost dry, etc). That's why sometimes you get pieces that don't burn still in the box at the end. Wood is wood and some of the same kind can have different results during the burn.

The key, just like an offset, is to look at the color of smoke coming out. When it's little or none you can add it.

Just remember, smoke will only penetrate the meat until about 145 or so. After that, the smoke will continue to effect the outside, but it won't affec the inside.

Thanks everybody,
gc/tx let me know how that butt came out. I plan on seasoning my smokette this weekend.

I had to add my .02� to this thread. This is a common misunderstanding. Not sure who your source is, but they have confused the process that creates the coloring we call smoke ring, with the flavoring of the smoke. The coloring will cease at about 140� to 145�, but smoke flavor will continue as long as the meat is exposed to the smoke.

Smoky
Keep'em smok'n

Slade, the pork butt came out ok, but I made one mistake. I depended on my thermometer to tell me when it was done. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the temp to get to 200* and it never did, although I cooked it 20 hours. It finally got to 195* and just stayed there. As Smokin'Okie later told me, temperture is just a guide. It was probably done to the pulling stage by 185*. The result was that it was kind of dry. This was not a problem, however; I used vinegar sauce to make it moist. But next time, after it has cooked for about 14 hours, if the temperature is not up to 195 -200, I'll open the door and test it by pulling on the bone and with a fork test. Good luck to you.

I'm going with what the Okie done and said about it several times. We do appreciate the input and opinion, though.

Slade, there are a number of things you have to remember to do before you close the door and start cooking. I think in the future I'll use a check list to be sure I've done all of these things -- such as, foil the woodbox lid, foil the bottom of the cooker, punch a hole in the foil, oil/pam on the cooking rack, put a drain pan under the cooker, put wood in the wood box, insert a probe thermometer down through the vent hole and insert it into the meat, set the cooking temperature on 225* -- have I forgotten anything?

Yea Just sit back and let the clock go till you have the best damn BBQ made. Thanks Cookshack

David