charcoal / wood.

Well, plenty of people out there think cooking over charcoal isn't cooking over wood (given the additives in most charcoal). And for me, cooking over charcoal doesn't really give it much of a "smoky" taste at all.

Too much smoke, just cut back in ozs. Remember, the wood is for flavor not heat, so just cut back. If you cut back, why would you then want to substitute a briquet? The only issue I know of would be the smoke ring.

If i cut back much more i'll be burning a few toothpicks!!!!
I like a fair amount of smoke on salmon but little (so far) on chicken, pork or beef.
I thought perhaps that charcoal might produce a lite char taste without an over powering smoke flavor.
Much of the smoked product i have tried including my own recent efforts have masked the meat flavor with too smoky a taste.
NOT bitter, but overwhelming smoky.
Lovely to smell but too much after a few bites.
I have no interest in smoke rings.
Charcoal but almost no wood seemed like an approach to me.
Thanks for your response.
dick

You said you used 'a couple of ounces'. Try 1 ounce of something mild like apple alone or whiteoak. If that smoker is seasoned really well, you will get smoke flavor even if your woodbox is empty, up to a point.

Go even lower and try 1/2 ounce of apple or cherry......and if that is too much go even lower..

Two ounces is actually a lot of wood for some smokes...

If you try charcoal get a hardwood product like Cowboy charcoal

Thanks guys.
Even less MAY be just right.
Dick

I wonder if you've got a batch of bad or old wood. I bought a bag of wood from one source that was obviously old. It produced an acrid, yellow smoke. Not good eats.

What you may want to do is add some good wood and burn it until the white smoke starts to disappear, then add the meat. This will ensure that the smoke is at its sweetest point. And you'll get less smoke absorption.

Thanks for the suggestion.
I THINK my wood is ok and today using 1 oz of the same wood i did 2 racks of beef ribs which were not oversmoked and certainly had no off taste.
I was surprised to see on lowering a probe that the smoker set at 225 over a 1.5 hr period averaged 257.
Accordingly i rescued the ribs at 4 hrs.
Had i not done so i would have lost them.
I will go back to the first recipe which was 2 hr at a dial of 250+ 3 hr at 180.
Even that was a bit much.
Apparently my unit runs hot.
Again,thanks.
dick

Dick, I wonder if some of the problems you are running into are because you are cooking small quantities of food. I think these smokers do better when their loaded up. That my .02 worth.

Jimfromweymouth.

Jim I'm confident you are correct and that underloading is a contributing factor.
A few beef ribs or chicken quarters simply can't absorb much heat and thus curb the enthusiastic heat output.
This machine is certainly not the one i would have selected for my limited use but i inherited it upon the death of a friend and of course i want to keep it in service.
I'm keeping copious notes and must simply modify times and wood quantities according to results.
Thanks for your observation.
dick