Cedar planked fish, but cedar is not recommended to smoke with?
 

Why is that?

I have wondered the same thing. I haven't seen a cedar plank salmon cooked, but doesn't the bottom of the plank char which produces smoke?

i think you have to keep the plank from charring,,make sure to soak it..it should just get hot enough to cook the salmon..i never tried it,but fish dosnt need real intense or long heat to cook..

I have cooked cedar planked salmon a few times. You soak the plank, build a hot fire, put the plank on and wait for it to start popping. Then you add the fist and cook until flaky. The cedar does smoke and it adds a nice flavor to the fish but I like Alder better. It is worth giving it a try.

So, you are actually smoking with cedar which is supposed to be a bad thing to do. It isn't logical.

Alder, on the other hand is a good wood to smoke with and particularly good for fish, so why not forget cedar and use alder planks?

You dont wanna use Cedar for fuel as it becomes nasty in large ammounts, bute the small ammount thats released from the planks is really delishious.

I put the soaked planks over the fire to char the bottom, then flip it over and put over indirect heat and put the fish on the hot lightly charred side of the plank, close the lid and let it cook.

DM

Doing it your way burns off all the bad oils on the side you put your fish, then cooking it indirect keeps the oils from the uncharred side from being released. This method makes sense to me.

i've done it dozens of times.

Cedar is a soft wood. similar to pine. Burned as a cookiing smokeing wood, it can ruin your pit by depositing tars and a cresote on the pit walls.

A soaked cedar plank under a salmon doesnt ignite, yes it chars on the underside a bit, and the flavors from the aromatics in the wood comes through the cedar and penetrates the salmon, but the wood never actually ignites and burns. The small amount of charring you get is enuf to release the oils thru the wood but does not produce any significant amount of smoke. You will notice that the entire top side of the plank statys intact as well as throughout, and only the bottom chars up a bit.

try it. putting the wood at the grid level is a lot different than puting it directly on the coals

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...0feb07-002.jpg

the cedar planked method dates back to the pacific northwest where salmon was smoked with cedar because that's the most abundant wood.

I've always heard not to use cedar to cook with, but we went to a steakhouse in north Arizona where they advertise that they use juniper (cedar) to grill over. Steaks turned out real good.

I hate cedar planks. They smell like a coat closet on fire. There are plenty of sources for good wood planks such as alder, cherry, and maple. They basically create a buffer from indirect heat while adding a quick smokey flavor as the bottom of the plank smokes.

Just a side note. The cedar planks can be cleaned and reused.
Dave

Saw cedar planks at Wal-Mart today. $6 each! :eek: