quote:Originally posted by Joe J:
I used 8 oz of hickory with 5 Kingston charcoal pieces.
Congrats on your success.
The cookers will cook exactly the same, as in fact the ST is a knockoff of the CS, both use electric heating elements. There isn't enough wood burning to provide the ring by itself.
The key was the charcoal. We've posted many times in here that charcoal will enhance the smoke ring, so looks like you picked that up. Basically it burns different and provides nitrates/nitrites different than a chip of wood.