Grilling with cedar planks

I prefer alder planks. I use them with salmon and pork chops.

I didn’t think of using shakes - that makes more sense than 1x6.

The only cedar plank grilling I did was on off-cut from planed cedar 1x6 we used for our ceiling - a good use of the off-cut, but not economical otherwise.

The extra thickness is actually useful. It makes the plank less likely to warp over time, and less of it will burn up during use. A too thin plank is far more likely to just catch flame and burn up with your dinner, though more likely just carbonize straight through by the time your done. Meaning you only get a single use out of it. This is one of the primary problems with the store bought cooking planks, they’re always cut very thin. It means they’ve got limited uses (I’ve only gotten 2 or 3 at best) before they need replacement. Which just makes the cost less justifiable if you can’t find them cheap. A thicker board will only scorch superficially in the first couple of uses, so you can get a lot more out of them before they start to hopelessly warp, burn through, and crack.

I’m betting it would work. But not particularly well. Most of the shakes I’ve used are pretty rough hewn. Lots of splinters, more than a few cracks. Which is gonna cause some sticking, and might leave some spiky bits in your fish. But sanding them down would solve that. And as far as I know they’re untreated out of the box. The bigger issue is in the shape and thickness. The thick end of a shake is about as thick as commercially produced cooking plank. Which is fine, like I said 1-3 uses in most cases. But the thin end of the shake is often pretty damn thin. Thin enough to catch a flame or burn through till its gone before you’re done cooking. Buying a whole box of shakes just to use for cooking is probably gonna require you to sort through for the thickest ones, sand them a bit, and/or trim off the thinnest parts. And you’d still likely have a bunch left over that weren’t suited to the task. All that waste is going to up the cost per usable plank. And cedar shakes aren’t exactly cheap these days. You can get smaller bundles. And there are cheaper grades of shingle. But the cheaper ones (in my experience) are less consistent. More of the thinness, splits, and rough surface I mentioned than the pricier ones.

I’d say its worth a try using some low cost ones, or if you’ve got left overs hanging around. But if I was trying to avoid the commercially packaged cooking planks I’d rather go with the 1x6 and cut it down myself. Cheaper and less frustrating

I just have an electric oven - do you think it can work even without a grill?

Sure. Here are some instructions.

Every time I’ve ordered fish cooked on a cedar plank it’s been raw on the inside. And cold. Granted I’ve only ordered it a couple of times. The second time I said, “Well, I won’t make that mistake again.” And it’s never been salmon, which I don’t mind on the rare side. Trout sushi ain’t all that appetizing.

But that leads to my question. Does planked salmon get thoroughly cooked or even warmed all the way through? A trout fillet is pretty thin compared to a salmon steak.

Ever try 'em on the half shell?

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Don’t buy shakes unless you know they aren’t treated. Most aren’t but some are. If you know they are untreated, shakes are the best deal for cooking cedar. Lap siding is a good choice if you can only find treated shakes. They cut down easily and are thick enough to be used 3-4 times (wash them please).

If you are looking for a nice way to grill whole oily fish (like mackerel), try placing a bed of bay leaves underneath. It’s a really unique flavour for smoking. It can get a bit messy, but the end result is excellent finished off with a bit of lemon zest/juice.

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Soylent green.

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Just remember there are many types of bay leaves, with the two most commonly used in the U.S. being Mediterranean (milder) and Californian (pungent).

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Didn’t know that. I’m in Canada, so likely both varieties could be found here - though I’ve never seen a supermarket carry more than one type or brand. I wonder which type I’ve been using?

I only cook with locally-sourced, free-range organic road-kill.

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Well that’s just… bad cooking. The plank blocks the direct heat, so it’s not that different from baking. I have done it once successfully, once not so successfully (the plank burned too quickly); It did take longer (IIRC something like 20 minutes) than straight baking in the oven.

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Well if your doing it right the planked food is cooked over indirect or very low heat, rather like an oven (the board will burn and char too fast otherwise). So yes it should work in an oven. But you’re still likely to have to deal with some charing and smoking of the board, so I don’t know that I’d do it indoors. If you give it a try you should definitely have some good ventilation. And I’d go with a lower temp, nothing over 300f. You’ll miss a good portion of the smokey effects, but you should still get well cooked fish with some cedar flavor.

You can also do it over a campfire. The original method for doing this (its a Native American method for smoking or cooking fish IIRC) is done that way. The boards are pounded into the ground or otherwise placed vertically around the fire (often tilted away from the heat). The fish is then attached to the boards, by nailing or tying or what have. The fish goes between the heat and the board, and then its left to roast/smoke till its done. You control heat by the distance and tilt of the boards. So its potentially something you can save for a camping or beach trip if you don’t want to try it in your oven.

Yes it can and should. Its supposed to be an indirect cooking method, so it takes a while. Even if you toss these things over a high fire, the board absorbs a lot of the direct head from the fish. And wood takes a while to get hot. So it slows everything down. Which is one of the points, cooks the fish more gently. But the fish should certainly be cooked and warm through the center. Whether you’re cooking it to a specific temp (rare or mid rare) or just cooking it through. That sounds like the fault of the restaurant. I’ve found that the trend for cooking certain fish to temp or only very lightly (especially with Tuna) has lead to a lot of people and places with less experience cooking seafood taking it too far or applying it to every fish. Most fish shouldn’t be cooked that way.

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That reminds me of when “blackened” fish became all the craze and some restaurants thought every fish should be prepared that way.

It was a terrible thing to do to salmon, swordfish, starfish…

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I see similar things all the time. Like duck. It became all the rage to cook duck breast as you would a steak. To temp, often with medium rare being the “proper” temperature. And that’s great. But people rapidly forgot that was for duck breast off the bone. And that there were other valid ways to cook duck. Roast a whole duck to medium rare and your thighs are a bloody, stringy mess, and all that un-broken down connective tissue around the bones makes it difficult and messy to carve or eat. And I hadn’t seen a slow roasted duck for years until very recently. Same deal lamb. Suddenly rare or medium rare lamb chops are all the rage, and mid rare for leg/shoulder. But lamb fat is hard and waxy, it doesn’t render well until medium temperatures. The right cut can be great at medium rare, but most lamb is better at medium. And there’s nothing wrong with taking those large roasts, especially the tougher ones. And roasting them slow till they’re tender and falling apart. Like barbecue.

The wacky thing is that these are things that are well understood in your technical cooking literature, cooking schools, high end kitchens, a lot of traditional cooking styles etc. It just seems everyone gets caught up in the trend to the point where they’re actively cooking foods badly (and wrongly) to fit the impression that x needs to be cooked less.

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I might also add, if you are doing cedar anything use white cedar. About 25% of people have negative reactions to red cedar.

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Wallaby. But be well advised to tie them down (sport)…or they’ll kick the shit out of your Weber… until they succumb to the smoke.

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