Fish with wood planks

BigGreenGiant

cooking some fish tonight and have used wood planks for cooking on a gas grill...

plate setter or no for direct heat to the wood?

SmokingPiney

I'm cooking this this coming weekend. The BGE cookbook says direct, 400 degrees.

Chubbs

I would go raised direct. Put plank on for a bit by itself so it smokes some. Then Lay fish on. 

blind99

I did it raised direct for the first time a few weeks ago.  At some temp like around 400-450 the cedar smoked - when the egg was cooler, no smoke.  Worked great.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1180202/cedar-planked-salmon-with-grilled-ramps-asparagus-risotto

NDG

I am big fan of Alder Wood Planks . . . usually soak for few hours, then place on egg for few mins until smokes a little (a la chubbs post above), bring back in the house, drizzle board with EVOO, place fish on top & grill board direct at 400 to 450 until fish done.

BigGreenGiant

So how do you raise the cooking surface without a plate setter

blind99

I use 3 bricks set on edge.  other folks have fancy "adjustable rigs," or make something with an old grill and some bolts.  google around the forum a bit and you'll see lots of ways.  some day i'd like to get an AR, they look like they add a lot of flexibility.

for example, type this into google and you'll see lots of posts:
site:eggheadforum.com raised direct

NDG

As Blind99 said . . . lots of ways to go raised direct, do a forum search.

NOTE: raised direct is not needed for a wood board fish cook, but is helpful if you want to go higher temp (like 450) as the flames are further away from your board. 

Here is a pic of my "raised direct" setup.  I purchased a "woo ring" online.  You can see my fire is still direct, yet it is much higher preventing the flames from attacking.

air1keh

Bought a beautiful piece of salmon this weekend from a fish market here in the Seattle area. Soaked a cedar plank in the sink all morning. Heated the egg up to about 475 and put the plank on with the fish - raised/direct. Cooked it until the internal temp was about 135 - it was a thick piece. Really good. 

The plank smoked but never caught fire. I keep a spray bottle with water in it close by just in case though. 

beachsmoke

Direct soak the plank for at least couple of hours I use salt water to soak cedar seems to bring out more flavor I do this once a week part of rotation I use tsunami spin dizzy pig delicious 

jtcBoynton

I have gone away from the wood plank and have, instead, gone to ceramic. Use wood chips/chunks for the smoke (alder for salmon). Cleans up nicely and is reusable. It does transmit more heat than wood, so fish cooks from both top and bottom.

SGH

jtcBoynton said:

I have gone away from the wood plank and have, instead, gone to ceramic. 

Believe this or not, but I have used my oval ceramic stone before with great results. What got me to try it was I had done lit the egg, cleaned and seasoned the salmon, and as luck would have it I was out of planks. Thus the ceramic stone was the stand in. The only noticeable difference was cook time was reduced dramatically due to me preheating the stone. 

bigguy136

I tried a soaked BGE cedar plank. I cooked for about 5 minutes and the board curled and all juices ran off. I haven't tried since but I was thinking of doing fish soon and thought why not just cook the fish on some foil?

BigGreenGiant

I am cooking now with wood planks
shrimp in a basket!!

going very well

BigGreenGiant

Trying to post a pic but having trouble

mahenryak

True confessions... this is probably sacrilegious but my personal favorite these days is fried on the stove with a little evo.  If the salmon is fresh, then you can't beat the natural flavors.  Maybe just a drop or two of lemon juice and S&P and I am golden.

Edit:  I should not have injected this here during your cook.  That was inconsiderate of me.  My apologies BGG and enjoy your fine meal! 

BigGreenGiant

mahenryak

Wow I can't believe the size of those shrimp!  Nice!

Hunter1881

Ok man you have to tell us how it  turned out. Looks good from here.

BigGreenGiant

Turned out very well
soaked the wood for 30 min 
bought a cooking basket for the shrimp
put lemon pepper and blacken seasoning on both
cut three nice chunks of lite butter into the top of shrimp

400 deg 20 min and I was done

gpsegg

What we enjoy is doing plank salmon raised direct at 250* to internal temp of 135*. Use DP Raging River and EVOO. Also mix in few handfulls of alder chips with the lump. Outstanding!

mgd_egg

Looks great.