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
