Food-over-fire aficionados know that grilling is only half the story. Some of us believe it’s barely even that. Barbecue is America’s food, and – despite the rising number of BBQ joints in the city smoking anything they can get their hands on – anyone who has driven the highways of North Carolina or Texas knows that good ‘cue remains woefully hard to come by up here. With a little forethought, however, you can convert your Weber into a smoker and make some excellent barbecue of your own.

The perfect time to do this is just after you’ve finished grilling a Porterhouse steak, when you find yourself looking at a bed of perfect, powdery coals – much better coals, in fact, than the ones over which you impatiently charred that steak. If you grill something else at this point, however, you’re likely to forget about whatever it is and leave it to be turned into a blackened, desiccated effigy while you make toasts and laugh with your guests over the corn on the cob.

Luckily, there is a second round of cooking perfectly suited to these peak-condition coals, and if you’re all prepped, you can get it going in the 12 minutes it takes for that 32-ounce steak to rest. With a little attention every once in a while to the state of the smoking, by the time your dinner party is over, you’ll have some great barbecue.

Start with a brisket or two, weighing about three pounds. If you know how to trim a brisket, smoke a whole one, but if you don’t know the difference between a trimmed and untrimmed brisket, ask your butcher for a trimmed one. Apply spice rub (see recipe,page13) thickly all over the brisket until it’s covered with the stuff. I like to do this about an hour before cooking, and then sprinkle the brisket with another dusting right before it goes on. If you’ve had it in the refrigerator, take it out a while before you cook it; you don’t want to put it on dead cold.

Now you’re ready to make your smoker. Remove the grill, and with a shovel or a stick push all the coals to one side. On the other side of the grill bottom, place one of those shallow, disposable roasting pans they sell in bodegas, or make a bowl out of tin foil. Fill this drip pan with beer. Beer, you’ll notice, is a central ingredient throughout this process.

After you set up the coals and the drip pan, add to the top of the fire a handful of wood chips or chunks that you’ve been soaking in a bowl or a pail. Wood for smoking can be purchased at a hardware or grocery store (can there be that much difference between the wood at Home Depot and the wood at Citarella?). I prefer hickory and fruit woods – mesquite can be slightly acrid. Seal off nearly all the air supply to the grill (allow a small trickle; the fire should smolder) and cock the top vent so that it’s about one-fourth of the way open. Monitor the heat. If you’ve got an oven thermometer, put it in there over by the brisket. You are looking for a slow, steady 250 degrees.

You may have to add some more charcoal (use one of those nice wooden charcoals; the cheap ones leave a chemical taste), and you should throw another handful of wood chunks on every once in a while. If you completely forget, and the fire goes out after an hour or so, simply finish the brisket in a 250-degree oven – you’ll be amazed at how much smoke flavor the meat picked up while it was on the grill. The brisket is done after about four hours, when the internal temperature tops 160 degrees.

Now, no doubt your friends are good people, and will have been sitting around drinking beer and smelling this brisket cook. If everybody hadn’t filled up on that delicious apple pie you made, you’d eat the brisket there and then. But luckily you’re looking at a rather large cut of meat that you’ll still have in the morning. You can eat a few sandwiches: Slice the brisket against the grain and make the sandwiches with white bread (the cheapest you can find), BBQ sauce, a slice of Vidalia onion, and dill pickles.

Eventually, however, you’ll be looking for something to do with those pounds of brisket. Enter the Texas Hash.

The problem with corned beef hash is that it usually comes from a can. Every six months or so, I find myself sitting in a diner ordering a plate of fried eggs and hash, and I’m always disappointed. Hash should be one of the most satisfying dishes there is, and yet, it rarely is. Finally, a solution.

Eat this hash for brunch with a fried egg atop it and a spicy Bloody Mary. The truth is, Texas hash is so good, it deserves to have briskets smoked for that very reason, with or without the Porterhouse prelude. Maybe forget the July 4 cookout, and just go straight to the brunch.

TEXAS BRISKET HASH

The Rub
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons kosher salt
Cayenne pepper to taste (I use 1 tablespoon and add 1 /2 teaspoon powdered chipotle – the rub should be hot)

Grind the seeds in a mortar and pestle, put in a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until wholly blended. This is enough rub for about three trimmed briskets.

The Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
Half a Vidalia onion, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 ounces beer

I know people who really like store-bought barbecue sauce, but I don’t know why. Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan. When the butter is almost completely melted, add the chopped onion. Saute until just soft, stirring and cooking slowly. Squeeze the lemon into the pan and add the rest of the ingredients. Whisk and simmer for 20 minutes.

The Hash

3 pounds smoked Texas-style brisket
Half a Vidalia onion
1 poblano pepper
Half a red pepper
2 Idaho potatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon marjoram

Slice the brisket against the grain and then cut across the slices, making 1 /4-inch strips. Put the strips in the food processor, and pulse a few times, until the beef is hashed irregularly, with some chunks and some ground bits. Chop up the onions and peppers and set aside. Chop the potatoes into 1/4-inch cubes. In a large frying pan (big enough for all the ingredients), saute the potatoes in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. When the potatoes are just soft, add the onions and peppers. Saute until the onions begin to turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Add all the spices and stir; the brisket is seasoned by the rub, but the vegetables need seasoning. Add the hashed brisket. The hash will caramelize and the meat will brown. If the hash sticks to the pan, deglaze with a splash of beer (this is really good, so try to get the hash to stick). Serve with fried eggs and barbecue sauce.