Plank Cooking

Spring Chicken

I often read where cooking salmon (or even other fish & meat) is made better by cooking on a plank. I won a pair of red oak planks in Ok City and I have no idea how to use them. I would appreciate some advice.[p]Also, I notice that such planks are quite expensive. I have access to plenty of cutoff pieces of wood and got to wondering if there is anything special about the planks sold for cooking food on?[p]Spring "Always Trying To Learn Something New" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

Unknown

Spring Chicken,
Usually you soak the plank in water, I've heard of using wine
but that seems like a waste to me, for about an hour or
two, then put your fish on the plank and plunk the whole
works onto your grill. I've only done this with cedar and it
gives the fish a mild taste. I was kind of under whelmed with
it. Just my opinion.[p]As for cheaper wood... I purchased UNTREATED dog eared Cedar fence
slats at Home Depot and cut them to the length I want. A slat
is only a buck or two and you get a couple of cooking boards
out of a slat. Make sure it is Untreated wood though to
avoid health problems.

thirdeye

Spring Chicken,[p]I've tried cedar and alder planks. I soaked them and got them hot enough to lightly char. The flavor of the cedar was stronger than the alder. The alder plank flavor was ok but not much different than using alder sticks in the fire. The presentation on the plank was nice though.[p]~thirdeye~[p]

mollyshark

Spring Chicken,[p]Coincidentally I'm going to be fish on 3 different type of planks for the BGE Univ. at Texfest. Will take the same kind of fish for each so people can taste the different flavor the planks impart. Some great, some not as. CU There![p]mShark

Spring Chicken

mollyshark,
Great! I'll be a student in your class. Then I'll go teach my class. Maybe I can add "ABT's on a Plank" to my course. [p]Spring "Grading On A Curve" Chicken

Smokin' Todd

Spring Chicken,
There are also planks in the gift bag. At 1st I thought it was a cutting board until I got home and took them out of the bag.
I, too, I have no idea using them. From the previous posts...does one actually place meat on them after soaking it?
Thanks,
ST

Unknown

Smokin' Todd,
If you Google 'BBQ Planked Salmon', you'll get about 33,000
hits. Here are two that looked pretty good.[p]http://www.bbqu.net/season2/204.html[p]http://static.ecookbooks.com/recipes/p/pacificnorthwestplankedsalmonwithmustardanddillsau/index.html[p]It's prtty easy to do. Enjoy!

[ul][li]Planked Salmon[/ul]

Unknown

Spring Chicken,
Ask Chubby about his great brie fire in a national forest during Floridafest!

Spring Chicken

Richard,
LOL... Yea, I read about it. I'm sure he wasn't thinking about the humor of it at that moment. Only later.[p]Spring "Flaming Fondue" Chicken

Spring Chicken

thirdeye,
Yes, the web site instructions say to do that. In fact, I was surprised to see a Big Green Egg being used to demo the grill planks. I'm sure going to give it a try.[p]Spring "Try Anything Once If It Doesn't Bite Me" Chicken[p]
[ul][li]Grill Planks[/ul]

Spring Chicken

K_sqrd,
Just as I thought. As long as I use untreated wood I should get the same results I think I'll try the cedar fence picket on my next salmon. I wonder if it works the same with veggies and fruit?[p]Thanks.[p]Spring "A Fence Is Not Just A Fence Anymore" Chicken

stike

Spring Chicken,
i bought a grocery bag full of 'shims' (cedar shingles that are low quality, and so are used to shim doors and windows)[p]was about 2 bucks.
i haven't even made a dent in the bag.[p]stike "el cheapo"

Spring Chicken

stike,
Good idea. But I got to thinking (usually gives me a headache) why no one uses cedar as a smoking wood like we do hicklory and oak and apple and so on? In fact, I'm not real sure I would even like the flavor of cedar smoked fish or meat or veggies. But I'm willing to try.[p]Thanks for the tip.[p]Spring "Splinter Gitter" Chicken

Citizen Q

Spring Chicken,
I've tried planks a few times, both alder and cedar. I didn't care for the cedar at all, the salmon tasted like a shingle, and I wasn't too impressed with the alder either as the finished product comes out more poached without much grilled flavor. Then I tried using the same alder plank for the second time placing the salmon on the already charred side of the plank, the result was still a little mushy, but the flavor was incredible.
The next time I plank I will char the board first for 5 or 10 minutes, then place the salmon on the hot charred surface and finish it off in the Egg. Hopefully it should give a similar taste and texture to grilling directly on the coals, while making handling fairly easy. I've given some thought to trying steaks or chops with this method as I've got a few each of alder, maple and cherry planks that I'd really like to put to some use.[p]Cheers,
C~Q

stike

Spring Chicken,
cedar (and pine) is very resinous. the smoke is very acrid and bitter. 'chemically' even.[p]but a soaked plank, with the salmon on it, will let off just a bit, and in that amount it is quite nice on the salmon. [p]i have a feeling it's from the tradition of cooking on an open fire, and in that case the amount of smoke that would flavor the fish is somewhat low. ...in the egg (or used in a smoker) it would bathe the salmon, (or whatever you were smoking) and would be pretty noxious.[p]so i actually DO soak the plank, and bust off the thin end, so that there's just a little charring/smoke

Spring Chicken

Citizen Q,
There's always another, and often better, way to do things.[p]Spring "Walking The Plank" Chicken