You can soak your planks in the kitchen sink, using a heavy object, such as a cutting board or a large pot filled with water, set on top of them to keep them submerged. Add a ton of salt to the soaking water (think sea, where the salmon came from) and some herbs from the garden (rosemary, thyme, etc, depending on what you are cooking, you can also add wine, vinegar, beer, or whatever subtle flavour you want to infuse your fish with). Completely submerge them in water for at least 2 hours before cooking, but 6-8 hours works best to make sure they are thoroughly saturated.

For that reason, it's best to only reuse your planks with salmon. The high heat will have cooked off any bacteria, but the flavour of the salmon may be cooked into the plank. Keep in mind that wood is porous, and the flavour of the salmon will have permeated it while cooking. Cooking planks that are intended just for this purpose are inexpensive and easy to find.Īnd, you can often get more than one or two uses from your planks, as long as you wash them in hot soapy water, rinse well and allow to dry completely after using. Just be sure that your cooking planks are untreated natural wood. Each wood will add it's own subtle flavour to your fish, which is a bonus of the planking method. I have used apple wood, and you can use any orchard wood. Your wood planks can be cedar, alder, maple, or any other wood that is able to withstand some high heat. But, whatever salmon is fresh and available to you will work in this recipe, and you can plank on applewood, too, and many other woods.Īlthough the process is very simple and not at all difficult, the planking experience has several important steps: What Kind of Plank to Use for Salmon? I love the crisp woodsy, smoky flavour that it gives to the planked salmon, which, for us, is wild sockeye from right here in beautiful BC. Although cedar planks are used frequently, I also like to plank salmon on alder.

Planked Salmon on the grill is one of the easiest and most flavourful ways to cook it.

Grilled planked salmon done temp