Question

[Hittle1020]

so my inlaws just got me an electric smoker, do some chips produce more smoke than others. I used apple and after it warmed I had plenty of smoke after 30 minutes or so, switched to cherry no real smoke after almost an hour, just confused

 

[mike243]

Cherry is a lighter flavor, did they burn? I think most of the chips are kiln dried due to federal regs for shipping out of area's, the chips have to be replaced every 45-60 minutes because they don't last long. hickory is strong, mesquite is also and some folks don't like it but I do on chicken. Apple is a mild wood and a good choice on any food for folks who don't like a strong smoke flavor

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Some are stronger than others. What kind of smoker is it? A lot of times it will smoke more while it’s warming up because the heating element is hotter. Then once it’s to temp it will slow down. All your looking for is “thin blue smoke” coming out of the stack. You’ll hear that said a lot in here.(TBS). Pretty much if you smell smoke then it’s producing the smoke flavor

 

[tag0401]

I tend to go off of smell, If I can see the smoke but I can smell it I know I am doing good. A faint thin blue smoke as they call it is what you want!

 

[Hittle1020]

Some are stronger than others. What kind of smoker is it? A lot of times it will smoke more while it’s warming up because the heating element is hotter. Then once it’s to temp it will slow down. All your looking for is “thin blue smoke” coming out of the stack. You’ll hear that said a lot in here.(TBS). Pretty much if you smell smoke then it’s producing the smoke flavor

Its a hallow smoke, nothing to right home about but good starter I think. The entire two hours I used apple it really smoked every time I put chips in, not so with the cherry or hickory, so if had me scratching my head. I will say that after an hour the cherry chips had only slightly darkened

 

[JLeonard]

If you added the chips in on top of what had already burned you may not have gotten enough heat to get them smoking, Sometimes you need your chips to be right on the metal of your chip pan to get them warm enough to smoke. And the thin blue smoke you are looking for is about like what you would get off a cigarette smoking, Or at least this has been my experience.
Jim

 

[daveomak]

Cherry is a hard dense wood... It doesn't like to burn/smolder... It doesn't like smoking when made into pellets either...
I found using 1/4 cup of chips every hour or so worked well... Clean the chip pan every load of chips... Ash insulates the pan and slows or stops the burn....
I don't like the flavor from cherry so I don't use it...