When meat is hot smoked, it is enclosed in a smoker in the presence of heat and smoke. The heat is used to cook the meat and the smoke provides the flavor. The trick to successful smoking is to slow cook the food with constant heat at about 180 - 230°F while smoking with a constant source of smoke. The constant heat can come from coal, gas flame or electric but the secret to constant controllable smoke is the SmokePistol. Because the flavor of the food comes from the smoke, hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, apple, among other fruit and nut woods are used to generate the flavorful smoke, In fact, there are nine flavors of wood refill cartridges available for the SmokePistol each having its own distinctive natural flavor. The smoking process not only cooks and flavors the meat but also helps preserve it. It is not uncommon to marinate or brine meats before hot smoking them, to add flavors like honey or sugar.