I’ve seen cuts of brisket that weigh as little as two pounds and others that weigh as much as eighteen pounds. What should I use?

This depends on many factors: What’s readily available in your area; how many people you’re planning to serve; what sort of grill or smoker you have; and so on. It also helps to know a little about brisket anatomy. The brisket is a large rectangular muscle from the chest of the steer. A whole brisket (also called a packer brisket) weighs about eighteen pounds and comprises three parts: the flat (a lean, flat, cigar box-shaped muscle located at the bottom of the brisket); the point (the lean triangular end of the flat); and the deckle (a fibrous fatty muscle that sits on the top of the flat and has a grain that runs at a 45 degree angle to the grain of the flat). Above and below the deckle are thick layers of hard, snowy white fat.