Steve, I would suggest that you follow that Midnight Brisket methodology of Chris's for your first run-through. I did ours that way for a long time before I ever foiled one... foil was a dirty 4-letter word in most BBQ circles until just the last few years or so. Foil is good for speeding up a cook. Foil is also used extensively in the big offset stickburners because the larger fire can cause a faster and dryer air velocity through the cooker, which can dry and/or oversmoke meats. It can be used for several purposes, but plenty of comps are won with no foil during the cooking process as well.
I would follow Chris's Midnight cook, using no foil. Some of us have shifted to fat side down, as you want your heaviest fat cap always facing the direction from which the heat comes (thank you, Jim Minion).
Suggestion 1: when you trim off that "hard" fat on the brisket, save it. When you set your brisket down on the rack in the WSM, tuck those saved fat chunks underneath the ends of your brisket where it comes near to the cooker walls. The heat in a WSM will billow out around the waterpan causing a higher heat at the edges that can adversely affect those ends. If your scrap fat takes the brunt of that heat, the brisket still cooks nicely without having the "bad" kind of burnt ends.
Suggestion 2: before you put the meat on the cooker, slice a wedge off of the flat going against the grain. That way, you know for SURE where to start slicing when it's done.
Suggestion 3: Pay attention to the meat temp, but not obsessively. You want to judge "done" by one of two things. First, if you stick a temp probe or a 2-tined meat fork sideways into the flat and it goes in like you're sticking the fork into butter, be happy - she's done and she'll be a good one. Second, if you poke at the brisket and it does a waba-waba kind of jiggle, that's another indication that the connective tissues have melted down and she'll be a good one. CAUTION - yes, when you remove your brisket from the cooker, you want to wrap it in a couple of layers of foil to let it rest for at least an hour. However, if your tenderness tests all show you that you're already nicely done, tender, and juicy when you take it off the cooker, set it on the foil but leave it unwrapped for at least ten minutes or so to cool just a bit. If it's a perfect brisket and you wrap it up tight and insulate it, it will keep on cooking PAST that perfect point and you'll wonder what happened to that lovely morsel of perfection when you unwrap it.
Do the Midnight cook a few times to familiarize yourself with the more traditional method and flavor, and then experiment with cooking in foil, fast cooks, etc. You won't be sorry.
As long as you're doing a midnight cook, might as well buy a couple of rolls of maple-flavored breakfast sausage, smear 'em with mustard, rub 'em, and throw 'em in the cooker for snacks and breakfast. Very easy, and very good.
Oh, and if you have a propane weed-burner, it's great for starting a MM cook. Just fill up your charcoal ring, hit it with the weedburner on top for about a minute, and away you go.
And don't forget - we need pictures, dear heart!
Regards - Keri C, still smokin' on Tulsa Time
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