flavour bisquettes to use?

[chiroken]

Is it personal preference or is it like wines, this goes best with chicken, this goes best with beef, this goes best with dessert (never did figure that out either ;) )

Smoke #2 going tomorrow (6lbs top round instead of 4 lbs which only lasted 48 hrs 2 wks ago), did up 2 marinades, both pretty basic. I changed up my first batch abit by removing the chilli and cayenne powder and adding a cajun powder instead. Certain flavours best for spicy jerky? I'm working off of a variety pack of bisquettes, have all 5 flavours still left.

Thanks.

[classicrockgriller]

Hickory, but would only smoke a cple of hrs.

After the smoke is over make sure and knock that last spent puck in the water.

[chiroken]

I did only smoke for 2 hrs last time, planned the same this time. Didn't dump the last burnt puck though...can this give off a bad flavour to the meat if left in place?

[Quarlow]

Yes it can. That is why you should have at least 2 bubba pucks. 3 is best but if you have 2 just put 1 wood puck on top of the 2 bubba's as I will do when mine get here.

[Caneyscud]

To get back to your original question - yes it is like wine, but not how you might think about wine.  If you want to enjoy wine, forget about listening to the "experts".  Find what you like and then drink it with whatever you like.  In past I'd drink big tannic red wine with fish smoked with mesquite.  The experts probably fainted.  But that is what I and my wife liked.  It worked for us.  Experts will say red wine with red meats and white wine with white meats.  Balderdash - drink the wine you like.  Their advice is only opinion and only opinion!!  No more - no less.  If that's the way they like it -- fine.  so be it.  But their taste is not necessarily your taste preference.  Try others!  Your taste buds did not come with an owner's manual that states for proper use calibrate to a known 'norm".  It's funny, I don't think I have ever seen a less expensive wine ever given a great rating.  Oh maybe, something like "it's good for the money".  Yes, I like(d) BIG tannic reds, big buttery chards, and brut champagnes (or vin de mousseux de qualité) made of pinots, and the less expensive wines are not usually big and tannic.  But there are some mighty fine drinking wines for lots less that those big, tannic reds.  And an enjoyable wine doesn't have to be a varietal, it can be a (gasp) cuvée.  Don't let snob appeal cheat you out of enjoying wine.  Same as with smoking woods.  There is no RIGHT wood to be used on any certain food.  It is what you like.   What there is is a lot of personal and/or regional preferences.  Around here, if it approaches being barely barbecue or smoked food it is Hickory, hickory, hickory.  There is NO other wood used around here.  One track minds - so if you ask any around here - guess what the answer would be?  Hickory of course.  Crafty Caney loves to "mythbust" so to speak.  I can't tell you how many times I've served barbecue around here using different woods - oak, pecan, mesquite, peach, pear, maple, mulberry, hackberry, sycamore, ash - and those dilettantes swore they were eating hickory smoked - they did not know any better.  Some say use a milder smoke like alder on fish - well I like mesquite.  But I like alder also.  Although I live in Tennessee, I grew up in Texas, and you would think I would prefer mesquite on brisket - au contraire.  Brisket for me is post oak or live oak - not mesquite.  Most of the brisket belt biggies use oak.  But guess what - hickory is real good also as well as mesquite or maple. 

Not trying to confuse you, but trying make a point that yes, try the "normal" suggestions - there's nothing wrong with them - lots of people like them, I like them.  But I do urge you to break out of the box and try something out of the norm - like mesquite on catfish, or maple on brisket, or mulberry on a chuckie, etc.....  Besides, truth be known, my opinion is that the different selections of smoking wood has little taste difference, except for the mesquite pucks - they have a discernible different taste than the others.  In a blind taste test, I don't think I can select oak from hickory or maple or whatever.  Especially when that is all mixed together with all the flavors involved with the rubs, marinades, injections, mustards, apple juice, other foiling juices, brines, bacon, sauces, and table sauces that most everybody uses - quite often more than one combined on the same piece of meat.