Mine? Well, keep in mind that I'm just a beginner myself, but I've done briskets starting with my first cook and had (knock on wood) great luck with them thus far.
My first brisket was a 8.5 lbs or so, and I trimmed ALOT of the fat off (so it was 1/2 inch thick all around.) Since then, my family has BEGGED me not to trim the fat because it's their favorite part! So now I don't do it at all. Plus...lately I've run into small flats with hardly enuff fat on them as is. So sometimes, if I'm doing butts, I'll trim some of that fat and lay it on top of the brisket for the first half of the cook.
I use a dry rub, either the one in the cooking section here under 'overnight brisket' or lately I've used the texasbbqrub.com rubs---both #1 but more recently #2. They're both quite tasty! I rub 'em either right before they go on, or an hour or two in advance, or one time I think I did it overnight. I haven't noticed a remarkable difference either way, so I try to do the 1 hour thing.
Then I slap 'em on there, fat side up---ideally on the bottom grate, with butts above to lend in the basting process. At the halfway points, I spray 'em with apple juice, and flip 'em.
I cook 'em slow, like between 200 and 250---ideally in the 230's. Then they take a million hours longer than I expect. Or sometimes I fall asleep with the maverick beside me but forget to turn on the alarm, so when I wake up my temps have soard to 275 and the brisket is in the high 160's or even 170's after a mere 4 or 5 hours. Then I panic and dial it back to the 220s and somehow the meat cools off and hits a nice 160's plateau for hour and hours and turns out alright.
I don't take my briskets to the high temps the other folks on the board do. I've pulled 'em off in the 160's and in the 170's and in the 180's. If they feel tender when I insert my thermopen, out they come. My family likes 'em sliced anyhow, rather than shredded. One time I had to foil a brisket (after I was going on 30 hours and the thing was NOT coming out of the plateau) but fell asleep (once again forgetting to put the maverick alarm on) and when I woke up the brisket and butts were in the 220's! But that damn things STILL were good and moist.
So...in other words, I just stumble bass ackwards around in my cooks and it somehow works out ok. The BBQ gods have been uncommonly kind to this lowly initiate.
