AMPNS

5X8 pellet smoker....  AMNPS....   Cold smoke with the heat off...   If it's cold out, turn the heat on for a bit to warm the smoker...  ALSO, you don't want to smoke cold meat....   condensate will form on the meat...  preheat the meat to above ambient before adding smoke...    also, you know to form a pellicle on the meat before adding smoke... 

Another option is to pipe in the smoke. Use the search feature here and type in mailbox mod. Works great for getting cold smoke into the smoker.

Dave and Case have you going the right direction.

As for controlling the temp, if the cabinet temp starts to get too high, crack the door a bit.  But the AMAZEN is great for keeping the temps low for you.

DaveOmak said:

 
5X8 pellet smoker....  AMNPS....   Cold smoke with the heat off...   If it's cold out, turn the heat on for a bit to warm the smoker...  ALSO, you don't want to smoke cold meat....   condensate will form on the meat...  preheat the meat to above ambient before adding smoke...    also, you know to form a pellicle on the meat before adding smoke... 

Click to expand...

What is "form a pellicle on the meat"?

Pugsbrew said:

 
What is "form a pellicle on the meat"?

Click to expand...

You air dry the meat to get the moisture on the surface of the meat to turn into a semi-hard, slightly tacky skin. To speed up the process, you can use a small fan so the surface dries more quickly.

According to some, a pellicle will absorb smoke more readily than if you just start smoking meat that has normal moisture on its surface. I have never done any experiments to determine if this is true. I do go through this step when doing a salmon hot smoke, but I don't bother for any other food. Quite a few people say you should do it with ALL food that you smoke. Perhaps I should create a pellicle on the next tri-tip I smoke and see if I can tell the difference. I did just read (in this forum) that one person says you get less of what he called "acid rain" if you create the pellicle. What he is saying is that the quality of the smoke is better if the smoke combines with the pellicle rather than with water that is on the surface of the meat. If true, that would make the extra step very  worthwhile.