As for briskets, the best thing to smoke is a whole untrimmed brisket. That would weigh at least 12 lbs. and contains plenty of fat for good smoking results. It could easily take 16 hours to smoke also. So beginners should start with smaller cuts. The flat by itself might weight as much as 10 lbs., so something around half of one is a good start. If you can get a butcher to prepare one for you ask to leave as much fat on there as possible. I think the extra fat acts as a sort of heat sink that prevents drying and toughening of meat from excess heat. It’s difficult to maintain lower temperatures ideal for long cooking cuts like brisket so the external fat layer helps by draining off excess heat in liquified fat. If you want go ahead and do a point, although they are usually sold as a piece of point and flat together. The other end of the brisket from the point is the naval, a thinner fattier section often trimmed off any cut. This section makes the best corned beef and pastrami for slicing. It can also beef sliced to make beef bacon, a weak substitute for the real thing but if you can’t eat pork at least it’s something. Speaking of pastrami, it’s just smoked corned beef with a peppery coating. You can but commercially prepared corned beef and smoke it yourself. The naval is best for that but you may not find it packaged. Just use a corned beef flat.
This year I’ve converted my broken 15 year old 22" Weber Kettle into a smoker (it’s broken in that those little cleaner, hole coverers at the bottom completely rusted away and I removed them and I can surely replace that piece but I got my husband a Big Green Egg for his birthday a few years ago, so this is my own little smoker/grill) by getting a little corner charcoal and wood holder that goes in the bottom of the grill next to the water pan.
So far this season I’ve done ribs and the cheapest bottom round my husband could find. They were both sous vided first and then smoked. The bottom round came out so good, hubby now wants me to try a brisket.
Lots of food names, really. In SoCal we had ‘potato wedges’. Up here we have ‘Jojos’. In SoCal we had chimichangas. Up here we have ‘crispitos’ (which is also used for flautas). Open a bag of Fritos, put in a ladle of chili, top with shredded cheese and (optionally) chopped onions. In high school in the Antelope Valley, those were called ‘pepper bellies’. In other parts of the country they’re called ‘Frito pies’ or ‘walking tacos’. And then you have subs, hoagies, grinders, heroes, poor boys (as opposed to po’boys, which I see as a distinct thing)…
One of Wifey, RN’s patients gave her surplus stuff, which included lots of garlic. I think I’ll make Cuban-style roast pork with the roast. I’m thinking my first foray into smoking will be salmon.