Smoking

I mentioned recipes. Normally I just smoke over hickory chips in an electric, but sometimes I use hickory chunks in the kamado. I don't find the final product to be better enough to bother with the kamado unless I'm doing a big batch, or I have other things I'll want to smoke later.

Apple wood is good to sub in for, or mix with hickory.

If you like maple bacon, maple wood gives a nice light hint of flavor that doesn't overpower. You could also mix maple syrup with a little warm water and baste the meat with that periodically after the first half hour of the smoke.

I did a Bourbon & black pepper glaze over oak once that was really good. The glaze was brown sugar (maybe a ½ cup?) and some light corn syrup (maybe 2 tbsp?), and maybe 2 oz of Kentucky Straight bourbon, probably Old Grand Dad. Mix it into a glaze and brush it onto the slab, then hit it with a generous amount of cracked black pepper. Smoke over oak chips or chunks.

I also did a root beer glaze (brown sugar, a dash each of chili & cayenne peppers, and powdered mustard thinned out with root beer) and smoked that over cherry. It was like Dr. Pepper bacon. A little too sweet for me, but I got good feedback on it so I'll pass that one along for your own exploration.

Good luck! Let us know how it works out!

(edit: so many typos!)