thanks for the friendly invitation to join the forum folks. i'm new to this, but since my hubby and i retired last week, i've been smokin' nonstop. i got a smokintex 1400 for my birthday, then the cart and cold smoke tray. my first try smoking cheese was more successful than i even dreamed! i'll try some bacon soon. tomorrow it's pork steaks. thanks jeff for the article about how to smoke them. i'm going to try the mix of pecan and cherry woods. 4 hours at 225 degrees outta do it. how much wood does it take to smoke for the 2 hours... at first, i used way tooo much i think. don't want to over do it.