Glad to have you with us, Stock! Now that you're here, head over to the Introductions section and tell us a little about yourself. Also, add a first name and town to your signature line so we know who our new friend is - you've probably noticed we all do that here.
Adding some salt on an autotune is not a bad idea. Personally, I don't use wood during the tune, and think it would take an awful lot of salt to simulate the heat sink effect of a 8 lb butt, but you could. It would be a lifetime supply of smoked salt!
Not knocking the idea, but to me, the autotune is not a time for any kind of food production. No need to use wood, as this is just a utilitarian exercise to tune the Auber. Just my 2ยข..