There's so many variables that it's a little daunting. So far I've identified the following:
-Type of wood
-Using water (mine has a water pan) vs. no water vs. beer vs. apple juice, etc...
-Rubbing, marinating, injecting beforehand
-Mopping during
-How long to smoke
-Slow cooling? (packing the meat into some sort of insulated container like a cooler so it cools very slowly)
I thought of just hot-dogging it but smoking is so time and labor intensive (not to mention the good cuts of meat aint cheap) I'd hate to end up with something that tastes awful. Here's an idea I had just based on very limited knowledge of smoking, general cooking, and some blatant assumptions:
-Start with a 6lb or so brisket
-Rub/inject with homemade BBQ sauce (I have a few different sauces that I've come up with for chicken mostly)
-Wrap with cellophane and store in the fridge for a few days
-Soak mix of wood chips (maybe hickory and apple?) in apple juice/water mix - The smoker instructions say to soak the chips for best performance. I figure the sugars in the apple juice will caramelize from the heat and make some yummy smoke
-Fill water pan with beer/water mix
-Smoke for ??? hours in a tin pan so that juices are retained
-Mop periodically with the same sauce that was initially rubbed/injected
-After smoking for ??? hours wrap in foil/towels and let sit in a cooler for ??? hours.
Its a start anyway-if anyone can fill in the blanks with suggestions I'd be grateful. Then I can blame you guys if it comes out like crap