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After sifting through the forum for a few hours, I understand some of my mistakes and realize I have been thinking about wood all wrong!

I've had my SM008 for about 4 years. It was a gift along with several bags of chips and chunks. Obviously the bourbon seasoned chips had to be the best to use and I failed badly in most of my first attempts at smoking with it. I also tried chunks but it was bitter and I din't really use the smoker again for a couple years. I realize that the chips were the wrong for what I was trying to do and when I used chunks, I was using way too much. I was guessing at what an ounce was. My early experiments were with chicken pieces bought frozen in bulk. I increased the wood (multiple small chunks) with the number of pieces of chicken. I also thought the smoke was supposed to continue through the cooking process.

I know many people that smoke but none of them use electric. I gave away all but a couple pounds of hickory chunks. I found a recipe to smoke some salmon that I caught recently and it specified a 1 oz chunk of hickory. I tried it and it was good! Been smoking for months now with pretty good results. I bought a kitchen scale to weigh the chunks. I basically follow the same procedure but have been trying different meats. I am still making mistakes though. I have not put more than 1oz of wood in the smoker at a time due to my previous experiences. I have been been replacing the spent chunk when the smoke seems to stop. Not so fun when smoking something like a brisket.

So, I gather that for larger pieces of meat, you increase the size of the chunk because it increases the smoke time. Two 1oz pieces will burn faster and produce more smoke than a single 2 oz piece. Try not to open the door or add more wood.

I've been placing my chunks over vent holes in the front of the box because they burn better. It seems to work well for something that has a short cook time. Would it be better to avoid the holes and front of the box for something requiring much longer cook time?

I saw some conflicting posts about the age of wood. Mine is obviously 4+ yrs old. Should I toss it out and start with new before experimenting more?

As always, any input is welcome. Hopefully other beginners can learn from my mistakes / experience. I'm just hoping that I'm starting to think in the right direction. I'd like to know what I'm doing before upgrading to a SM025 Smiler
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Ahh yes, It seems that you are on the right path. If you ever have a bitter taste more than likely to much wood smoking at the same time.You do need to remember that meat quits taking on smoke at 140* and then starts layering after that point. As for the old wood? My thoughts are HOW and WHERE has it been stored? Could be ok and maybe could be old. I know that is very much like I don't know.


My opinion is that it is more important to smoke the meat correctly and have good quality meat than worry about when the wood runs out of smoke.(right Tom?)
Glad to hear you are finally beginning to have some fun with your smoker. Yep! Laying on the smoke after 140* is useless unless you enjoy the bitter taste of creosote.

And with the chicken... It takes on smoke way faster than other meats. Go really light. Most here ascribe to beginning light with the smoke (amount of wood) and build it up to what you enjoy.

Read this forum & you will learn a lot. Ask question and we'll get you thru the difficult areas.

Have fun! Big Grin
Yep,the good cooks above gave you some good directions to start.

If your cooker is well broken in,you probably don't even need the wood for good chicken.

There are a lot of folks, that cook with charcoal, that know when to toss in another golfball sized chunk of wood,at the times it might help.

Read,read,read,and then cook,cook,cook,.

Save the tricks for the neighbors,and they'll all wish they had gone ahead and actually cooked something, years ago. Big Grin

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