Soaked Chip Smokers vs Pellet Smokers

Vintage465 wrote:
Actually as a person who makes and smokes sausage, ham, Canadian Bacon, bacon, etc., what has not been mentioned here is the flavor of the smoke. There is a much different flavor from chips,chunks or even dust that is soaked or dampened then the flavor of smoke from dry chips, chunks and dust. Especially when smoking @ low temps with cured products such as hams and bacon. For hot smoking, or BBQing in the 225-250 range if you soak chips or dampen dust and put it in some kind of vessel like a small stainless container the smoke flavor is very gentle and not dry and dusty. Usually if I am doing something uncured like ribs, pork shoulder, or brisket I will put a chuck of wood about the size of a tennis ball that is dry on the edge of the fire so it struggles to burn and smokes slowly. With BBQing, what I've found is gentle smoke over a longer period of time produces a flavor that I like better then lots of smoke all the time or lots of hot smoke a short time.....and like everyone says, it has to do with your smoker, experience level and particular taste........

The goal, regardless of what you are using is thin blue smoke (TBS). If your pumping out heavy white smoke, your going to get a bitter, heavy smoke flavor. TBS is a smooth subtle flavor. Depending on the smoker, it may be harder to achieve TBS on a stick burner then say a electric smoker.

My neighbor gets samples of my cooks, and recently picked up a offset stick burner. As a greenhorn, he didn't realize the billowing white smoke was not desirable. His first few attempts were disappointing.

Regardless of the smoker, the biggest key is knowing your smoker and how to control temp and smoke.

Some like the traditional stick burner. Tending the fire, adding the proper amount of wood for heat, smoke is part of the journey. Others want to hit a button, and sit back and let the cooker do the rest.

I enjoy both methods, but I'll admit, my pellet smoker is getting a lot more use then my other smokers.