Smoke Wood?

I'm planning to smoke a boston butt in the next couple of weeks and I was wondering,If I want to keep a light smoke going for the long cook how much wood do I need to add up front or do I have to add wood every couple of hours?

I add all the wood up front and don't worry about it for the remainder of the cook. If you want to go light on the wood I would recomend three chunks for a pork butt.

Clark

Adding more wood up front is mostly just going to give you a heavy smoke for the same length of time as if you went light on the wood.

You can bury chunks in the unlit charcoal of a Minion cook, and that will make the smoke last longer. You will still likely have to add smoke wood if you really want to keep the smoke going for an entire butt cook.

No matter how you do it, though, this sounds like a LOT of smoke. Butts can take a lot, but you might be disappointed with the results.

When using your WSM you have to remember that it's not designed to be constantly puffing smoke. If it was then you wouldn't be able to eat the product.

As someone much smarter then I pointed out a while ago... smoke isn't "absorbed" by the meat but rather "adsorbed", meaning its the build up on the particulate on the outside surface of the meat. Whether you add 5 chunks at the start or stagger them over the cook (assuming consistent heat), the result should largely remain the same.

If you are going for show then go ahead and spread out your chunks. If you want a good smoke ring though (purely appearance) then you will might want to add 50% or so at the start.

As for "light smoke" flavour, I would reccomend looking at using largely fruit wood (cherry, apple, etc) and only 1/2 chunk of hickory. Assuming fist size chunks I would say 3 chunks apple, 1/2 chunk hickory. If you want a stonger smoke in the future you can look at bumping up to 1-2 chunks of hickory and keeping the fruit wood the same.