Thanksgiving is almost here. If you bought a turkey to smoke but don’t have much of a plan, these tips from a few Houston pitmasters collected by Houstonia might help.

We just released the Texas Monthly Tacopedia, along with several city-specific taco guides. The Houston edition is especially, and pleasantly, barbecue-heavy.

What does a $2,000 brisket taste like?

Travis Heim explains his distaste for barbecue lines, for the term pitmaster, and what it means to open a third location of Heim BBQ.

Cooking Channel star Ali Khan spent five hours in the massive line at Snow’s BBQ in Lexington on its first day open after a months-long hiatus.

Snow’s BBQ announced its upcoming schedule. The joint will be open the Saturday after Thanksgiving and on January 2, but closed the day after Christmas.

Why you may encounter undercooked ribs at opening time:

“The story of sausage in Texas barbecue is long and complex,” says J.C. Reid of the Houston Chronicle.

Pearland may be more recently famous for Killen’s Barbecue, but Cuban-influenced Central Texas Style BBQ down the street has been in the game for fifty years.

Tim Carman found the Taylor Swift of D.C.-area barbecue joints in this year’s list:

Bud Kennedy points Star-Telegram readers to his picks for great beef short ribs in Fort Worth.

“[Barbecue is] just like coaching. A lot of patience. Trial and error. And if you mess up, don’t give up.” — Lancaster High School football coach Chris Gilbert.

Andrew Hill of Hill Barbecue in Lubbock told Everything Lubbock about his barbecue process and menu.

“Everyone in the cul-de-sac loves this grill.”

Managers at Tyson’s pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, allegedly placed bets on how many workers would contract the coronavirus within their facility (1,000 of the plant’s 2,800 employees have been infected). The managers have been suspended.

Cargill CEO David MacLennan told the Wall Street Journal that the company values worker safety over profits. In the same interview he says workers are more likely to bring the coronavirus into the workplace than to catch it at work.

A National Academy of Sciences study released last month showed an increased risk of contracting COVID simply by living in close proximity to a meat processing plant.

Pork steaks are all the rage, even in the Midwest:

I’ve enjoyed the barbecue and cornbread at Revival in St. Paul, Minnesota, so it was sad to see that the smoker was stolen from behind the restaurant.

Eater Atlanta asked if there is such a thing as Georgia-style barbecue, then spent too much time looking in Atlanta to find the answer.

Adamson Barbecue in Toronto opened its dining room, defying government orders meant to slow the spread of COVID. The restaurant was promptly closed by Toronto public health.

Let’s check in on the forecast … err … the Meatcast: