I am new to smoking, I have questions (help)

1. I have a Maveric duel remote thermometer, it's OK but it surely isn't God's gift to thermometers.
2. Maple is very light for smoking, I used it for some bacon, was good. Try it out, you might enjoy the taste. The thing with smokers are that just because I like this or that, means that you will.
3. I have mine in the garage but unlike many people I have a door on the front and back of the garage. It's nice in the winter, crack both doors and let her go, also if there is a car in the garage during a smoke the next time you use the car you will remember what you cooked last. I enjoy that.

Maybe you can find some hickory, oak, cherry in your area. Maple may be a little light on the flavor,but as Bubba says, it could be perfect for you.

I wheel mine out of the garage to do my smoking and back inside for storage.

I'd suggest you read Smokin's 101s as a way of a head start on road to becoming a cook. It will only help and have FUN with your new smoker.

I live in northern MI where there is also a lot of maple. Most of my wood comes from my own 20 acres and includes: maple, hornbeam, and black cherry. The hornbeam is probably in your area too and is a close cousin to hickory. MI has hickory in its southern parts but not as you go north. There are also a lot of apple trees around but I bought some bags from Cabela rather than try to go out and find someone with some scraps. The CS 55 of mine uses such a small amount of wood that it wasn't worth the trouble. I find that if I can buy wood chunks for $1/lb, that it is better to just buy them. But I do use a lot of maple and hornbeam.

You can find reference to hornbeam for BBQ on the web.

Forget to mention about the dual probe thermometers. I have been using a dual-probe Maverick for several years and I think it has been the most dependable when considering the probes. I don't think I have ever had a probe problem, and most therms do have probe problems.

The transmit range on the Maverick is the only problem... Don't expect any more than 25 feet. But it has an alarm so you can set it to a temp and hear it from another room.

Just get a couple of these: digital meat probe or comparable.
Just be sure you get a good instant read thermometer to check product for sure. Like this: Instant read

Here is a link to woods

What wood

As far as smoking in a garage, well unless you have proper ventilation I would not. It could do smoke damage and you may get a neighbor calling the fire dept. I would wheel it out, like Cal recommended.

Welcome to the forum.

We do have specific forums for woods and thermometers, just look farther down on the main page for more info (if the above didn't help)

The issue about the garage is "it depends" on the airflow. The smoke from the smoker has to go somewhere and you want it outside. If you let it, it WILL discolor all the stuff in your garage (paint, etc) because it will settle on everything if the air doesn't carry it outside.

Do NOT attach a vent directly to the smoker, it will affect the airflow (cut it off actually). The only way is to put a draft fan above it to draw it out. Some will put a vent tube just a couple of inches above it to give the smoke a place to go, but that doesn't work always.

You could set it up at the G. door and use a fan to blow the smoke out.

It works fine on a back porch, I'd put it there and get a cover for it.

As is often referenced on this forum, different woods are like different seasonings, and the amount used is like seasoning to taste. I love maple wood smoke on canadian bacon; it is light and sweet and I can almost taste the syrup. Hickory is stronger and sweet, and is what most people expect on ribs and butt. Cherry is darker and more subtle; it substitutes well for hickory but is noticeably different. If you are new to smoking, welcome to the right place. Advice from others is free, personal experience is hard-earned and valuable--take lots of notes!!

thanks to all of the responses, I just received my sm 025 on tuesday 5-4-10 and today 5-5-10 i put about 3 to 4 oz of hickory in the smoker box to season it.. after four hours i shut er down and looked inside and there was still quite abit of wood left in there...
I think what i wanna do is buy some kinda shop wall vent, and install it in the wall of my garage above my smoker, that way, regardless if i close up my garage for the night i can leave this exhaust fan running and not have to worry about smoke residue...

has anyone else done this inside thier garage???
it seems like a no-brainer to me..
I also bought my first pork butts!!! I kinda made up my own rub, with a bunch of different stuff, i hope they turn out good, were gonna cook em fri or sat night...
im pretty happy to have found this web-site, it seems to be a treasure trove of information, thanks to all, and live life to the fullest, it is short!
mmm......

The garage idea should work fine.

As to the idea of a MN Mountain man I cry foul as the highest point in MN is only 2301 feet and that hardly qualifies as a foothill much less a mountain.

Better than the Florida Keys Mountain Man...you barely get winded running up to knock him down.

ok so its Sat night Ive put two pork butts(almost 8lbs each) in my smoker @ 5:30pm, @ 225 degrees, I have them both probed... its 9:00pm now and they are already 145 degrees..are they cooking fast? i was planning on leaving them in all night...should i reduce the temp to 200 degrees to slow down the process more? any imput here would be great...ive read about this plateau @ 160 degrees...how long does this plateau last?

It takes around 2hrs/lb at 225* on my cs020, never faster. I don't stay up to see how long the plateau lasts.

You have a CS, so you will get to sleep tonight.Thats the NICE part.

I'd drop it to 200*. Even at that you might be up before dawn to turn off the smoker. I put my butts in at 11:00pm and they're usually ready by 8:00, cooking at 225*.

Plateau duration varies but expect it to be 2-5hrs.