How much wood for smoking butts?

MJG

I am ready to go with my first smoke of Boston Butts in the LBGE. The lump is loaded but I am wondering how much wood to add in. I am using chunks of both Hickory and Apple. Thanks for any input.

Scottborasjr

Low and slow or another method? If less then 275* dome I'd say 2 chunks of each.  If going higher I'd use 3 or 4 chunks of each with one chunk of each really buried in the coals.

EGGerAllanPoe

I'm curious too. I used chips for my first butt and it was completely useless. I used chunks the second time, only added two chunks. I felt like it could have used more than that though.

TonyA

I use 5 large chunks cooking 10lb butts.

Charlie tuna

I use pecan chunks to produce a maximum amount of smoke during the first two, to two and a half hours.  I think anything past that time does little good to add "smoke tastes" to the meat since it is basically sealed. 

Scottborasjr

EGGerAllanPoe said:

I'm curious too. I used chips for my first butt and it was completely useless. I used chunks the second time, only added two chunks. I felt like it could have used more than that though.

Chips I've found to be pretty useless unless just looking to throw a little smoke on to a chicken breast or hamburger.  Chunks are the way to go.

EvansEgger

I use both chips and chunks and both give me a lot of smoke. I see no difference in the final outcome when using either one.

Crispix49

I like a pretty heavy smokey taste, so I go with 6-8 nice size chunks of hickory or pecan for a BB.

ddegger

I started with four fist-sized apple chunks but found that they burned up in about an hour. So, I added four more to get me through the first few hours (turbo method)

smokesniffer

I am doing a 10 pounder starting tomorrow night. Did not have any apple chunks, but did have apple chips, I am using about 4 fist fulls.