I use Steve's technique for pot-roast, Raggy, usually with a cut we in Canada call a chuck roast that is otherwise good for little but hamburger.

Brisket is the cut used for pastrami, known here (and very popular) as Montreal smoked meat, so it isn't widely available in supermarkets -- the delicatessen people grab most of them. But our local Sobey's occasionally gets a shed-load of large hunks of meat, such as whole beef tenderloins, so I always look in the Deal of the Day area when hunting and gathering. This brisket is the first I have ever seen that was not a special order and the centrepiece of somebody's garden party. I ascribe its appearance to the growing popularity of American-style barbecue, by which I mean low-temperature cooking with smoke.

Such a huge cut of meat is what I call rich people's economy. With the more common whole beef tenderloin, for example, you pay a risible price per pound and break it down yourself, thus obtaining at least a dozen servings of fillet steak plus super-lean off-cuts to put in your mince. BUT you have to be able to cough up a substantial sum (more than Cdn$75.00) without time to plan for it, you need freezer space to store what you don't eat immediately, and you need the kitchen skills to cut it up and trim it correctly, and then cook it properly.