How to Cook Fish Using Grill Planks

Ask any grill enthusiast about grill planks, and there is really no stopping them after that. They will go on and on about cooking salmon on cedar planks. In fact, there are restaurants that prepare something like forty pounds of salmon each day with cooking planks.

Plank grilling and cooking planks are not new. In fact, they are a wonderful old tradition of cooking that originated from the Indians around the Pacific Northwest and became popular with the rest of the world.

Plank grilling is similar to using a pan. The difference is you will get smoke, and the plank is likely to catch fire. Planks are great because you get a nice flat surface that is stable to place your food on, enabling them imbibe that smoke flavor. Think fish fillets. Incidentally, the first ever food cooked on planks was fish, and you can imagine why.

Grilling planks put that perfect flavor into your grilled meat, fish or bird. The juices are held intact inside the meat making them succulent. Before you start cooking on the plank, it must be soaked for fifteen to twenty minutes. Then it can be placed directly over the fire. A grilling plank can be used up to four times. In fact, these will work with any grill, be it a charcoal grill, gas grill or even electric grill, so long as you have a lid for the grill.

Preparing your meals on aromatic grilling planks is a wonderful way to grill. The original Indians would slow roast their fresh catch of salmon on cedar or alder planks over their fire pits. This method made the natural oil and moisture in the cedar or alder wood penetrate the salmon to give it an incredible flavor. Now, this method is also being used creatively all over the world to cook meat, poultry cheese, fruits and vegetables. And yes, you can make your pizza on a cooking plank!

When you buy your cedar grilling plank, make sure you get one that is untreated. You can get them at your local hardware or grocery store. Why untreated? So that you can avoid your food being contaminated by chemicals. Also avoid resinous wood like pine. Other than cedar grilling planks, you can also try alder, maple, cherry, apple wood, mesquite, peach or oak to experience different flavors in your food. About an inch thick wood will do. Get a cooking plank that can take the size of the food you want to grill.

You can also buy your cooking planks online these days. A lot of people visit their local lumberyard and get the exact size cut to fit their grill. If your plank is similar to cedar shingles it can crack, splinter or burn and you can only use it once.

Experienced chefs use one-inch thick alder grilling planks for cooking salmon. They have a series of holes drilled diagonally across to skewer the salmon fillets to the board. These planks are hung vertically around a fire pit that burns slowly to enable the salmon roast slowly, basting in their own oil while absorbing the smoke and the wood flavor.

Plank grilling is a very tasty way to grill because of the delicious flavors. It is also very easy to do. Those who have tried it once seem to want to get as many recipes as possible into their favorite cookbook and try them all on the board. Practically anything can be plank grilled – from poultry to large roasts and just about anything that requires a longish grilling time. Cooking planks give your food that great smoke flavor which is the essence of barbecue grilling.