MIDLAND, Texas — Everywhere you go, holiday dinners are a must this time of year.
There are many ways to prep it as well, but nowadays more and more people are turning to their smokers to cook up their festive meal.
As the name suggests, smokers use smoke generated by heat to cook the meat. It's a slower process than other techniques but, according to Texas A&M Forest Service Senior Project Manager Shane Harrington, that slower tempo sets the perfect mood for the holiday party.
“Barbecuing is social," Harrington said. "So if you're talking about cooking something over long periods of time, people like to gather around their backyards, hang out around the smoker, play games; it's just a very social event.”
Almost any type of meat can be tossed into a smoker and, more often than not, it'll come out tasting pretty good.
“Anything obviously from brisket to dinosaur ribs to beef ribs to short ribs," Harrington said. "My favorite is pork spareribs or whole pork shoulders.”
In fact, around the holidays, it’s custom to serve up a ham or a turkey, but when you’ve got a smoker in Texas, it gives you plenty of options as to what can be served as the main course.
“A lot of people are ditching turkeys for Christmas brisket, especially out here in Texas where brisket is king,” Harrington said.
There’s more than one way to fire it up. Smokers need fire to generate heat, which requires burning wood.
According to Texas A&M Forest Services, Texans are most likely to use mesquite, oak, hickory or pecan wood in their smokers. They'll even toss in wood pellets to generate that heat.
Out here in West Texas, one brand of wood is usually more popular.
“West Texas, I think when you move out there, people are sourcing wood with what they can get around there," Harrington said. "It’s probably going to be a little more mesquite and probably a little more red oak, maybe not necessarily post oak.”