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In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but oak is more often used now, and beech to a lesser extent.[clarification needed] In North America, hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple, and fruit tree woods, such as apple, cherry, and plum, are commonly used for smoking. Other biomass besides wood can also be employed, sometimes with the addition of flavouring ingredients. Chinese tea-smoking uses a mixture of uncooked rice, sugar, and tea, heated at the base of a wok.

Hot smoking cooks foods and simultaneously flavours them with smoke in a controlled environment such as a smoker oven or smokehouse. It requires consistent control of both the temperature of the food and the amount of smoke being applied to it. Some smokers have a heat source built into them, while others use the heat from a stove-top or oven.[10] Like cold smoking, the item may be hung first to develop a pellicle; it is then smoked from 1 hour to as long as 24 hours. Although foods that have been hot smoked are often reheated or further cooked, they are typically safe to eat without further cooking. The temperature range for hot smoking is usually between 52 and 80 °C (126 and 176 °F).[11] Foods smoked in this temperature range are usually fully cooked, but still moist and flavourful. At smoker temperatures hotter than 85 °C (185 °F), foods can shrink excessively, buckle, or even split. Smoking at high temperatures also reduces yield, as both moisture and fat are cooked away.

For a hot smoker, as a minimum you need a source of heat and smoke and a way of keeping the food to be smoked away from the fire (this could be a grate on which to set the meat) or rods from which you can suspend the meat.

It's also good to have a water source to create steam as this prevents the meat from drying out during cooking. A thermometer is advantageous to ensure the smoker remains hot. The device needs air holes to keep the fuel burning and it's good if this can be controlled to increase or reduce air flow to heat up or cool down the smoker.

A kettle or lidded barbecue can be made into an impromptu smoker by adding a bowl of water and leaves or something to increase the smoke then close the lid. An impromptu indoor smoker for an oven or stove top can be made with a combination of rice and tea in an aluminium tray.

The image here shows an implementation of a hot smoker using bricks and two terracotta pots. The upper pot needs to sit securely on top of the lower pot to yield a lid. It's good if you attach a handele to the upper pot so it can be removed to access the food without burning yourself. This can easily be done via the drain hole in the top (just make sure you add a pipe in there to maintain a steam escape chimney).

The lower pot sits on three bricks. This means that the water drain hole acts as a route for ash to escape (which then falls between the bricks). Place a small piece of mesh over the drain hole and the base of the pot becomes your fire basket. The shoulder of the pot becomes the point on which the cooking grill sits. You can also remove the cooking grill and insert rods between the two pots so that food can be suspended. If you want a steam bowl just sit this on the cooking grill. It's also fairly easy to drill in to the top of the bottom pot so you can insert a probe-type thermometer. The drain hole of the bottom pot also becomes the air inlet vent to keep the fire going.

Note that smoke is both an antimicrobial and antioxidant, but it is insufficient for preserving food because it does not penetrate far into meat or fish; therefore, if the food is to be preserved, smoking is typically combined with salt-curing or drying. Smoking is especially useful for oily fish, as its antioxidant properties inhibit surface fat rancidification and delay oxygen from reaching the interior fat and degrading it. Some heavily salted, long-smoked fish can keep without refrigeration for weeks or months.

In cold smoking, no cooking is involved: The primary goal is to impart smoke flavour, not to cook the food through. Prior to cold smoking, curing is often needed: Many foods, like fish and meat, require curing (brining or dry salting) before cold smoking to ensure safety. Note that as it's the wood smoke that imparts flavour, different types of wood chips are used to achieve specific flavour profiles.