Guide to Smoking Times, Temperatures and Woods

[SuperDave]

Beautiful guide and just what I'm needing at the start of my experience in smoking. One question: When weighing one's wood (2 oz. for example) does it matter if it's chips or chunks? Do they both (in the same 2 oz. weight) perform the same?

IMO, they will not.  Chips will combust much easier and if you found away to elimate the combustion, the smoke duration would be much shorter.

 

[jaka]

Thanks for the input. I'm assuming then that if it calls for 2 oz. of wood and I have chips, I should add a little more. I guess experience will hammer in what works. Anyway, never having even opened a door to a smoker leaves me a little baffled in all of the knowledge I've seen exhibited on these forums. It's exciting to finally get started.

 

[SuperDave]

What meat are you smoking with just 2 oz.? 

 

[jaka]

I'm not smoking anything yet. I just opened the smoker and haven't even seasoned it yet. I know nothing about smoking and was just trying to figure out what weight I need for chucks and/or chips, etc. if it called for 2 oz. for instance. I'm sure this all sounds so off the wall for an experienced smoker but I'm totally ignorant in terminology, times, weight, etc. Hoping to learn all this so I can at least ask intelligent questions. Thanks for your input it really is appreciated.

 

[SuperDave]

Don’t sweat it, we all learned as we went and have gotten better at our hobby. A lot of your early questions will have answers that include, “it depends”. Not all meats smoke by the same rules so let us know when you are about to get your feet wet and what you are going to attempt That way we can be pretty specific.

 

[bgkysmoker]

What is the lowest temp that will create smoke from chunks?

 

[old sarge]

I get smoke around 120/125 degrees  as registered on the controls but that is misleading.  That is the box temp after a few minutes of being on.  The heating element directly below the wood box is screaming red hot, far hotter than what the controller is showing. What the lowest temp is that will produce and sustain smoke is something that I have never looked into. This link MIGHT help, not sure.

https://www.smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1561.msg60466#msg60466