BBQ season is coming up! whats this BBQing with a wet food plank?!

[UrbanPoet]

I saw someone BBQing stuff on tv with a wet piece of wood....
Anyone know anything about this style?

[Tami]

I've heard of cedar plank salmon...

[nalababe]

Yes, this is for salmon cooked on a cedar plank. If you did not soak the wood for several hours, the wood would be very dry and would burn too quickly. Wet, the wood will smoke and add a nice flavour to the dish.

[Keelie]

its also good for cooking chicken and ribs

[UrbanPoet]

so i just BBQ my meats on this plank? can i reuse it?
Where doi get? home depot or something?

[Tami]

I've seen the cedar planks at A&P.

[Ojam]

so i just BBQ my meats on this plank? can i reuse it?
Where doi get? home depot or something?

Can't really be re-used, salmon is grilled that way because fish cooks fast directly on the heat, so doing it on the wet wood steams the flavour of the wood into it.

[duckdown]

The plank is really only for fish as far as I've seen... You should consider picking up a bag of mesquite wood chips from a Canadian Tire or similar place; those work amazing with really any type of meat :) The hickory wood chips would be too strong for something like fish I would imagine

[ott_wrench]

Wood planks and wood chips are really starting to become popular and this is not just for fish. For those with gas bbq it make it taste more like charcoal. Many of the planks and chips are also flavored to add a hint of something special to your grilled foods. You can even get oak chips from Tobasco that were used as barrels to age their sauce.

In terms of flavours, I've seen hickory, mesquite, apple, tobasco and pecan. I'm sure there are others.

The chips are soaked in water - or any liquid for that matter (I've heard of one guy using Grand Marnier!) then go in a cast iron or stainless holder which is placed under your grill (usually on the deflector). The cedar planks are traditionally used with fish/salmon but they also have other types of wood. One guy I spoke with couldn't say enough about steak done on a walnut plank or a turkey on the rotisserie or beer can method using the pecan chips.

I have yet to try chips or plank but I am certain to give it a whirl this grilling season.

cheers

[duckdown]

You can even get oak chips from Tobasco that were used as barrels to age their sauce.


Now THAT sounds cool. Where did you see these?

[Keelie]

The plank is really only for fish as far as I've seen... You should consider picking up a bag of mesquite wood chips from a Canadian Tire or similar place; those work amazing with really any type of meat :) The hickory wood chips would be too strong for something like fish I would imagine

i saw a package of them at costco yesterday, it listed to use for fish, chicken and ribs.
i'm sure it would be fine to use for anything that you want to cook slower and not burn.

[vinciman1215]

Whenever I BBQ, I usually have a soaked cedar plank for that delicious filleted salmon. Having the Cedar Plant really makes a world of difference in the taste.

Cedar Planks are purchased usually at specialty food stores. Once you have one, you simply just soak it entirely in water with a weight on it overnight (soaked wood doesn't burn as easily as dry wood and generates smaller sequences of smoke, so it doesn't overpower the meat you have on top). Next, you just place your fish/meat on top of the plank, close the grill, and just make sure you have a small water sprayer to quell those little flames that come up on the side of the plank :P.

Whereas the Cedar Plank is used on TOP of the grill rack and provide direct contact with the food, the Cedar Chips are used UNDERNEATH the grill rack and relies entirely on the smoke generated by the burning wood. The difference between Cedar Chips and the plank is that Cedar Chips give a quicker more "external" hickory/mesquite flavor that is perfect for shrimp, kabobs or other smaller-in-size BBQ meats. The Cedar Plank is used when you want the flavor to be actually soaked up by the meat, it also tends to be used with delicate foods that flake easily on the grill.

Anyways hope this helped :)

[ott_wrench]

Now THAT sounds cool. Where did you see these?

I saw them at a local grill/bbq store in Ottawa. The have a location in Hamilton as well:

http://www.bbqing.com/contact.html

Of course the tobasco chips were like $20 where as most others were in the $6-10 range.

cheers

[billdozer]

Taste the meat, not the heat.

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

You should be able to get cedar planks at any decent grocery store (Loblaws etc) in the fish section. They tend to be $1.99 or so.

The chips are more of a specialty shop/Canadian tire-type thing.

And you don't have to buy one of those cast-iron smoker boxes. You can just put the chips in heavy-duty foil, seal it so it's like a pouch and then poke holes in it. (If you're going to be doing it often you can get the box but to try it out you don't need to make that investment.)