I made a special trip to Wholesale Sports Federal Way for pucks yesterday. Product placement isn’t ideal; I couldn’t find them and had to ask. They are not located with the rest of the chips, bisquette, chunks, etc, but they are there. They only had maple and alder so I bought a package of each; retail $6.99.

I have a homemade smoker that is insulated and uses a small oven type element with thermostatic control. I used the maple pucks and smoked up 6 racks of baby backs for a potluck at work today. I smoke ribs at 225 degrees; the smoke was pretty intense and the pucks made smoke for over an hour. I started with two pucks side by side but found one puck makes plenty of smoke and two was probably over kill.

When preparing ribs for next day consumption, I usually smoke them for 5-6 hours with a dry Cajun rub and let them sit in the fridge overnight covered in BBQ sauce wrapped in foil. I reheat them in a slow oven (225) for about an hour and a half.

I wasn’t as happy with the finished product as when I use chunks of woods, but I usually use mesquite or hickory to smoke pork so that could have been the difference. Don’t get me wrong, the ribs were very good and the folks at work think they are outstanding but I think the sharper flavor of mesquite makes a better rib.

I wanted to try the pucks because I don’t always get consistent smoke with the hunks of wood; different sizes, different trees, different moisture content, etc. I am also looking for something for cold smoking like for cheese and bacon. I was also looking for something I could use to chute feed my smoker so I don’t have to open the door to add wood and I think this is the perfect product for that application.
So far I am very satisfied with the product. I think it performs as advertised and I will use the alder to smoke a turkey on Thanksgiving and salmon on Saturday and file another report.

I hope this works out, I like to support local companies and this seems like a sustainable product especially if the pucks are a by-product of milling operations. Count me in with the others who would like more wood variety.