Amount of smoke wood

[MarkH - IN]

Does anybody use more smoke wood for large cooks compared to smaller cooks? For instance, usually I'll cook 2 pork butts and use two fist sized chunks of cherry and 1 fist sized chunk of hickory. Over the weekend, I cooked 4 butts (2 on each rack) and used 3 chunks of cherry and 2 of hickory. If you have more meat in the smoker, should you use more smoke wood even though the actual volume of the smoker stays the same?

 

[Doug D]

I'd have to say more smoke is wasted venting out of the cooker than is actually deposited on the meat, regardless of how much meat is in the cooker. I'd stick with the lesser amount of wood.

 

[Michael Plunkett]

I agree Doug. Less is better. You don't want to over power the meat with the smoke. You'll also run the risk of getting a "sooty" coating on the meat with too much wood. 3 chunks of wood is plenty for whatever you're cooking, you can always add more if you need to towards the end of a long cook.

 

[Clay Jackson]

When I dod B over B I use three chunks of Hickory and one of apple, or some variation. I put the brisket on three to four hours later and add two chunks of cherry.