LanceP I am using both charcoal and wood. I start with the charcoal until it's ashes over and up to temp then throw the wood in there followed by the meat. From what Phatbac is saying maybe I should let smoke roll for a bit before inserting the meat?
Yes, you want to wait until the thick white/grey smoke has burned off. Now how long that takes depends of a number of variables including how you're setting up your fire. Which is why I was asking.
There are two ways you can go about this with your smoker. Which works best will depend on your tastes and how involved you want to be in the cook. I use both but prefer a wood fire.
First: you can set up a charcoal fire using the minion method. Fill the firebox or charcoal basket with unlit charcoal, mix in a few wood chunks, and pour 1/2-1 chimney of fully lit coals. However much it takes to get your smoker up to temp. Now my variation on this is, instead of wood chunks, I put a small split on top of the lit charcoal and let it burn for 5-10 min. Then close everything down and dial in my temp. Because I let it burn first I get thin blue smoke fairly quickly and usually get a nice smoke out of it. If you use chunks be careful not to use too many. The pros of this method are: you can get a long consistent burn and, if you've sealed up your smoker so that you have complete control over airflow, after a few smokes you can set it up and walk away. The cons? In my opinion a wood fire still tastes better.
The other option is a wood fire. You can start it any way you want. Kindling, charcoal, weed burner etc. I start with half a chimney of lit charcoal and add a couple splits.
White smoke
My smoker comes up to temp really quickly so once those splits are burning I close it down and set my damper for the temp I want. By the time it's at temp I have tbs so the meat goes on. After that it's just adding splits as needed to keep the fire burning. The key is to burn a small hot fire just big enough to maintain your temperature range. A small fire that burns hot (flames) burns clean and will give you clear to thin blue smoke.
Preheating splits on the firebox helps them to ignite instantly and maintain tbs.
The flames burn off a lot of smoke including creosote and other compounds that give your meat bitter and acrid off flavors. Don't worry, your meat will still be smoked. It just won't be overwhelming.
Pros to this style are: a lot less ash and the flavor can't be beat. Also, if you're in an area where hardwood is easy to come by it can be much cheaper than charcoal. Cons? You have to pay more attn to fire management. In some areas where hardwood isn't readily available it can be more expensive to cost prohibitive.
Either way you'll eventually find which style best fits your needs and turn out some great que. just keep the smoke thin and blue.
Lance