Pitmaster Terry Massey slices smoked bologna at Lazy S&M BBQ in Joshua. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

A year ago, after our best of Austin tour, we wrote about how turkey breast was making a move to join the royal family of Texas barbecue: brisket, pork ribs, and sausage.

We're still not ready to give the big bird equal status, but we order it whenever we see it on menus. A lot of joints in the state are smoking great turkey.

On our recent South of DFW Tour, three of the four places we visited served barbecued bologna.

Different, we thought, so we sampled it at each place. At Jambo's BBQ Shack in Rendon, bologna comes as part of the Jambo Texan, the giant sandwich stuffed with a mountain of meats.

After some study, it turns out that opinions about barbecued bologna range widely.

A story on the Food Network Web site says it is a popular smoked meat in the south. The story recommends slicing a thin layer off the bottom of those big round hunks so they don't roll around in the smoker. And it recommends using cherry wood for flavor.

Another site lists bologna among "the 10 strangest things you can barbecue," along with guinea pig, nutria and yak.

"If you don't do it right, it puffs up from the heat and has a tendency to explode," a Tulsa restaurant owner warns of bologna.

Lynn of Lynn's Kitchen Adventures calls barbecued bologna "Oklahoma prime rib" and offers a fully illustrated recipe.

She does admit that while her family likes the dish, she's not a big fan.

"I have told my husband many times that bologna is bologna no matter how you serve it," she writes.

As for the Posse, we found our bologna experience interesting.

"If you're going to eat bologna, this is what you should eat," Tom Fox said after sampling Jambo's. Jim Rossman and I had seconds on the bologna -- blackened -- at Pit Stop BBQ in Waxahachie.

But overall, we're not big advocates.

In Texas, barbecued bologna is not the new turkey.