audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I finally tried plank grilling. I've been meaning to try this for quite a while, but you know how that is, sometimes it takes years to get around to it. My husband adores planked salmon.
One of the problems with my beloved Baby Weber gas grill has been lack of indirect cooking options. I rarely did fish on it because I would have to use non-stick foil to keep from getting the burn marks too heavy, and for some reason fitting the foil to the cold grill and poking all those little holes it and then taking it off while waiting for preheat, and then trying to fit it back on just seemed like too much trouble to me.
While browsing in a camping store, I stumbled across a cookbook by Fire & Flavor :: Grilling Papers, Planks and more! and read the back section on plank grilling and ended up buying it. Ordered some of their planks from Amazon - which carries them in "bulk" i.e. 3-packs, and thus well discounted.
Did some salmon on an alder plank. It worked beautifully. Great smells too. So easy!
The planks basically let you steam/smoke/bake the fish on the grill. No marks! NO FLIPPING THE FISH - not having to turn the fish on the grill is such a big deal. Now I can do even the most delicate fillets on the grill without worry.
And I can probably do some other larger cuts of meat that want longer roasting rather than high-temp grilling. Chicken is something I haven't been happy with on the grill because the exterior burns too easily - especially if marinated/basted. Using a plank will solve that problem as well.
And my burning (pun!) question about planks was - are they reusable? The answer is YES! How many times reused depends on how thick the plank is and how charred you get it. More time soaking = less charring. I had hesitated to spend the $$ on a couple of planks because I wasn't sure if it was a one-time use only.
Going to do another today, and plan to take a photo this time so I'll post it.
Audrey
One of the problems with my beloved Baby Weber gas grill has been lack of indirect cooking options. I rarely did fish on it because I would have to use non-stick foil to keep from getting the burn marks too heavy, and for some reason fitting the foil to the cold grill and poking all those little holes it and then taking it off while waiting for preheat, and then trying to fit it back on just seemed like too much trouble to me.
While browsing in a camping store, I stumbled across a cookbook by Fire & Flavor :: Grilling Papers, Planks and more! and read the back section on plank grilling and ended up buying it. Ordered some of their planks from Amazon - which carries them in "bulk" i.e. 3-packs, and thus well discounted.
Did some salmon on an alder plank. It worked beautifully. Great smells too. So easy!
The planks basically let you steam/smoke/bake the fish on the grill. No marks! NO FLIPPING THE FISH - not having to turn the fish on the grill is such a big deal. Now I can do even the most delicate fillets on the grill without worry.
And I can probably do some other larger cuts of meat that want longer roasting rather than high-temp grilling. Chicken is something I haven't been happy with on the grill because the exterior burns too easily - especially if marinated/basted. Using a plank will solve that problem as well.
And my burning (pun!) question about planks was - are they reusable? The answer is YES! How many times reused depends on how thick the plank is and how charred you get it. More time soaking = less charring. I had hesitated to spend the $$ on a couple of planks because I wasn't sure if it was a one-time use only.
Going to do another today, and plan to take a photo this time so I'll post it.
Audrey