I did my first test last night with some PitMaster pellets that I received with the A-MAZE-N and I got them going really well with the door open. I was actually able to maintain a flame with the door open for 3-4 minutes before I blew it out so it could start smoldering. The saw dust always blew out. There could be a couple of reasons for this. First, I bought a better torch that put out a bigger flame. Second, the wind may not have been quite as strong as my last attempt with the dust.
I added a small piece of Pork Belly that I had been brining with my last batch of Canadian Bacon that I smoked on Saturday. This was a small piece of skinned pork belly from the hog that we butchered during deer processing season.
Since I was cooking meat that could drip, I left the smoke box in and placed the A-MAZE-N on the very bottom shelf on the opposite side of the pork belly which was up on the top shelf.
After about an hour the smoke went out, so I lit it up again and added the Jerky Dryer. This totally did the trick and it smoked non-stop for the next 10-12 hours. I went to sleep with about 1.5 rows of pellets left after it had already been smoking for 5-6 hours.
This was a cold smoke where I did not turn on the Smokin-It heating element. The pellets definitely burned hotter than the dust that I tried before, but I am not sure if that was because of the pellets or that I had the Jerky Dryer going. My temps actually got up to about 115 at one point, before going down. While OK for Bacon, this would not have been good for cheese. So, going forward, I may have to add some ice, and/or buy/borrow a cold smoke plate when doing cheese.
As you can see from the picture below, I got a nice full burn on the pellets.
My only complaint is that while the color of the belly looks really good, the smoke smell while strong, does not really smell the best. I know this was a long time in the smoke, so maybe it just needs to mellow a bit.
I have it wrapped in plastic wrap and in the fridge for now. For any of you bacon experts, how long should I leave in plastic wrapped before, I vacuum pack it? I'm not going to dirty my slicer for this one little piece of bacon, so just going to package it whole and slice as needed.
Just kidding! You can see some darkening. Trust me - with 5 hours in the smoke, it will definitely be smoky enough! As it sits in the fridge, the smoke will penetrate deep into the cheese. Not sure why this "mellowing" happens, but would like to know. Guess I'll have to do a little research! 
