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Planked Salmon

Citizen Q
Citizen Q Posts: 484
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Greetings All,[p]I've Egg'd salmon a couple of times before on both cedar and alder planks and enjoyed it very much. Last night I reused an alder plank to grill some sockeye salmon filets that I had picked up frozen from Trader Joe's. I soaked the plank for about 45 minutes while I lit the fire and prepped the salmon with a bourbon mustard glaze, then placed the filets on the plank, charred side down, and set them in the Egg at around 400-450, at 20 minutes I gave the fork test and figured that they needed about another 5 or 6 minutes.[p]I was not happy with this dish at all, the meat itself was very stiff and lacked flavor (thank God for the glaze), but even worse was that the part of the fish that was in contact with the plank tasted like wet plank, none of the gentle smoke that I was expecting and had experienced before. My wife said that see noticed a very bitter after taste. [p]As I was cleaning up, I noticed that the plank showed no signs of any new charring, and determined that a good long soak was not so good after all. When the board was fresh, I only soaked it for 5 or 10 minutes, but I think that after being charred and dried out from previous use, it may have retained quite a bit of water. I believe that I may have actually poached the fish more than I plank/grilled it. It also occurred to me that I could alternate cooking on each side of the plank to prolong the life and lend a little bit more of the char flavor to the salmon. Does anybody else use their planks in this way? Anybody see any ill effects?[p]Cheers,
C~Q

Comments

  • eggor
    eggor Posts: 777
    Citizen Q,[p]I cut my cedar planks from new unfinished pickets that are are scrapped due to flaws. These are given away to be used as firewood. i don't see any point in trying to reuse them. Now i guess if you are paying for them, maybe trying to reuse them makes sense. Check with someone that puts up cedar fencing and you will have more planks than you will know what to do with.[p]Scott

  • Citizen Q
    Citizen Q Posts: 484
    eggor,
    Actually I have a preference for the alder, and alder is very hard to come by in this part of the country. As for cedar, I've got hundreds of leftover red & white cedar shingles and shakes filling a cedar chest in my cellar, no shortage there. I picked up these planks in a pakcage of 2 alder and cedar to give them a try. The store where I picked them up also had oak, pecan, cherry and apple wood planks, but went out of business before I could stock up.[p]Cheers,
    C~Q

  • Citizen Q,
    i do cedar plank salmon fairly often. ..i soak mine for 3 - 4 hours, then put them in the egg with no food for about 5 minutes till they start to 'crackle', then lay the fish on them (usually with olive oil and some dizzy or bluesmoke rub). . .cook at 425 for around 15 minutes. . .fish always comes out great with a hint of smoke. . .and very moist, but not mushy.. ..HTH

  • Citizen Q,
    Yup...soaked 2 long.
    I reuse them all the time. No biggie.
    15 minute soak is more than enough.
    Crapy salmon makes crapy salmon no matter what you
    slop on it...rule of thumb: if it smells like fish in the raw state, then my Ma had a trick...soak in salt water (the fish) for about 20 minutes..use ROCK salt, not that
    umbrella chick stuff. Rinse well...and you have semi fresh fish. I grew up in Alaska...we had literaly a freezer full 24/7...a few years old (vacuum sealed of course) and you have to get inovative...you can only eat so much smoked salmon, salmon loaf, salmon sandwhiches, salmon quiche, salmon salad, salmon sticks, salmon soup, salmon bread..I think you get the idea...