I use Hickory or apple depending on the meat. Beef=Hickory or mesquite, and pork or chicken = Apple or Fruitwood of some other kind. I have apple at my disposal.
I have a huge smoker that i have only used probably ten times. Here is my method. Start with the biggest chunk of meat that I can find at the Grocery store or in the woods.(venison) Make a huge foil pan. Pour in all of the Worstesire or whatever marinade, spices and all of the seceret ingredients you can find, then close all of it off with a huge foil lid. Let that sit somewhere while I get the fire built up. Get the biggest fire going that I can, with regular hardwood firewood. Let that burn open, until I need to add some logs. Add one or two logs and wait for the new ones to burn down about half way, then I start shutting down the baffles to bring the temp down to about 400*F. Its hard to regulate the temp, but thats ok, as long as i stay above 300*F, I'm happy. I let it basically bake for 3-4 hours like that. Open up the baffles for more heat, close them down, if it goes over 425*. At about 3 to 3 1/2 hours of cook time, I add a couple of fire logs and then lots of the wood that I intend on smoking with. After I am sure the ashes have settled and the fire is calm, I open up the foil and drain the juices. Now I'm smoking the meat. I like about an hour of actual open foil "smoking" time. It seems to be smoky all the way through, but not super strong. I have smoked it for longer with some deer meat. About a hour and a half. The meat was black all around the outside, but fell apart like a pot roast. Bones just fell out. My smoker has a drain for the marinade to pour out, but you can always remove the meat and drain then put it back in there, but it would totally suck to drop it at that point. MMMMMMM I'm getting hungry
