Add chips throughout process?

[scottsmith]

Please pardon my ignorance but this is my first time smoking meat. Do I continually add soaked chips throughout the smoking process or just leave the chips i started wit in the pan? I have noticed after about 90 minutes that the smoke eminating from the smoker has decreased significantly and when I opened her upand peaked in the chip box it seems the chips are lmost like charcoal and very little smoke it coming from them...PLEASE HELP! Oh - I have a 34' Smoke Hollow gasser. thx.

 

[meowey]

Yes, add chips throughout the smoke. Every 90 minutes is not a bad interval. I would dump the burnt out chips out before adding new.

Hope this helps!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[starsfaninco]

Scott,
First, welcome to the site.

Now to the question at hand. I have a GOSM that is very similar to your smoker. I use large chunks (2" cubed to fist size) of whatever type of wood I'm smoking with. I usually put two chunks in for the first part of the smoke and add the meat when the thick white billowing smoke stops. What you're looking for is a thin blue smoke (TBS). The white stuff is impurities and steam (if you soak) burning off and can become creosote and leave a very bad bitter taste. Ok, so now that the wood has smoked down to invisible or less smoke (usually about 45 mins to an hour and a half or so), I top off the water pan with hot water, and toss another chunk or two in. If the original chunks are white ash then they are pretty much done, if they are still black coal looking, they are still imparting good smoke. I repeat this cycle until my meat hits 140* or there abouts. Some will smoke the duration of the cook, but there is an argument that most meat stops absorbing smoke at around 140. Once at 140, I continue to top the water off every hour or so until the meat is at the desired pulling temp.

Hope this helps you out.
KE

 

[cman95]

I am a newbie here but remember to not overpower your smoke. You may want to stop adding smoke wood/chips your last 2-3 hours of cooking. This is according to how long you are cooking...how large is piece of meat, what kind and so on. Each person has diffrent taste so it is up to you. Just my .02. Good luck!

 

[flash]

Use chunks they will usually last you longer than chips.
Also, meat has pretty muched shut it pores up when it reaches 140º internal temp. This does not mean you cannot continue to add smoke, but the smoke will not penetrate as well after that temp.

 

[scottsmith]

thanks for the input. I added another handful of soaked chips...and after 3 hrs total cooking time...i now seem to have a thin blue smoke...2 more hours i hope....getting HUNGRY!!!

 

[peculiarmike]

My $.02 - forget soaking. And use chunks, not chips.
You may not see smoke, but as long as you can smell it you are doing fine.

 

[prov1]

I am also new to smoking, so far I have found that wrapping the soaked chips in aluminum foil and poking holes in the packet works pretty good. I tried the smaller chip loose at first and did not do much but start a pretty good fire in the smoker!