CompileAKernel

make config or make menuconfig to configure it how you want

in the root of the source, run the command:

make-kpkg --append-to-version /mysuffix/ --initrd --bzimage kernel_image

where /mysuffix/ is your own identifier to append to the version. You may omit --initrd if you don't need an initial ramdisk.

Once the process is done, you will have a nice .deb for your custom kernel in the directory one level up from your source. You can install this with:

dpkg -i kernel-image-version.deb

NOTE: before compiling a second kernel after patching the version or making configuration changes, make sure you do:

make-kpkg clean