[Ericthefred]

Just followed these instructions (except the burnt ends; I'll try that next time), to do my first brisket in the smoker, and served 11 lbs of pure joy for our 4th of July party. I still have a few things to learn when it comes to not making more work for myself, but I'm happy to report the brisket is superior! (We're picky about brisket here in Texas, so that's saying something.) Good smoke ring, tender meat, and lots of compliments. I'm a happy man. The only mishap was that I did the first cut slicing the wrong direction, so some of my slices of flat were a bit mangled.

I threw in a fatty using some of my left-over rub when I started the smoker this morning and served it for lunch. The wife loved it and insisted I serve a couple with the brisket, so I sent number one son to the market for a couple more logs of Jimmy Dean. He came back with something I've never seen before: 2lb logs of Jimmy Dean (twice the normal size.) So, we had four lbs of fatties to serve to our guests. Fired up the grill this evening to do a tray full of mushrooms, summer sausage and yellow peppers, some grilled asparagus, cob corn and chicken thighs (one of my in-laws can't eat beef.) All came out well except I screwed up the asparagus (although my wife and a couple other charcoal fans loved the ugly black results. I tried a couple and had to admit the parts that didn't taste like my wood-chip box were pretty tasty.)

Enough rambling; thanks for these awesome instructions, and much other great advice I've found here.