If you choose to cook bacon as part of the seasoning process, put the slices in a cast-iron pan on the grates. Close the lid, and that bacon fat will still splatter all over the device to season it, without the risk of big flare-ups from too much fat hitting the coals.

Bread is an inexpensive way to discover the hot and cooler spots on a smoker.

Chuck Blount rubs olive oil on his smoker.

If you have someone who truly loves you, you got a new grill or smoker as a Christmas present. As Cousin Eddie from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” would say, while slogging down his eggnog, “It’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.”

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But there are a few things you should do to prepare your new cooker and learn more about how it will operate before that first batch of food hits the fire.

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Bryan Crawford, owner of the Lone Star BBQ Pro-Shop in Helotes, says that that most cookers come coated with industrial oils to prevent rust.

With a wet rag, wipe down the grates thoroughly to remove as much of those oils as you can. This applies to all cookers, whether gas or charcoal grills or smokers. The rag should smell like it came out of a machine shop once done.

Then, apply a proper cooking oil to as much of the unit as possible. Wipe down the interior lids, grates, fire boxes, etc. as if you were finely detailing a vehicle.

“I like to use peanut oil, but olive or vegetable oil is fine, too,” said Clarence Joseph, one of the top competition barbecue cooks in Texas.

Once you have cleaned your new cooker andaplied a coat of cooking oil, crank it up and get it humming with a lengthy cook to start the seasoning process.

Once you have the cooking oils applied, the key is to crank it up and get it humming with a lengthy cook to start the seasoning process. Crawford and Joseph recommend getting the internal temperature up to at least 300 degrees and let it burn for about two hours. But feel free to go hotter, as a grill or smoker cranked up to 400 to 500 degrees won’t damage the unit.

You can do this without any food in the cooker, but Joseph recommends cooking a really fatty meat in this step to add to the seasoning. He recommends pork shoulder, bacon and lamb ribs.

If you choose to cook bacon, put the slices in a cast-iron pan on the grates. Close the lid, and that bacon fat will still splatter all over the device to season it, without the risk of big flare-ups from too much fat hitting the coals.

And if you have a smoker and have a preferred wood, use that. “Your cooker will slowly start to take on the flavors of what you use most on it,” Crawford said.

Ingredients used to break in your grills and smokers include bacon, bread and olive oil.

Most cookers come with some sort of temperature gauge that’s attached to the lid, but these can be misleading with the actual temperature inside the unit much higher at the grate level than the lid. It’s not much of a problem with gas grills set to high heat, or small backyard charcoal units, but in larger smokers, the air can flow differently in various spots. You want to find out where those hot and cool zones are.

You can do this the fancy way or inexpensive way. The fancy way is to load your cooker up with multiple digital thermometers and monitor them.

The miserly method, which is the one I highly recommend, is to place slices of bread in various spots on the grates and regularly check them to which ones darken faster. Another popular method is to bake biscuits spread out on the grate to see which ones rise and finish first.

“It’s all about knowing your cooker and figuring out what works best,” Crawford said. “Once you start using it enough, it’s sort of like riding a bike, but it’s a good idea to test it out.”

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The absolute best thing about any new cooker is that it hasn’t had the opportunity to build up gunk. It’s a fresh canvas, so take advantage of it and keep it good and spiffy.

“One of the biggest myths in barbecue is that the soot and the grime that builds up over time adds to the flavor of the meat as time goes on,” Joseph said. “Whether you have a $15,000 pit or a $90 Weber kettle grill, you want to always keep it clean.”

Place drip pans under the meats when you can, and don’t allow any mess to accumulate over time by being lazy. Once the cooker cools after using it, scrub it. And if you cook a turkey on your new device, save the neck for Cousin Eddie.

cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver

Chuck Blount is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience at the San Antonio Express-News, and a tenure split between writing and editing about food, drinks, poker and sports, where he was part of the team that covered four of the five Spurs' NBA championships. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa.