Grill Maestro

My good friend Scott, one of the masterminds behind the Ghent Bar Tour, which, through their charitable efforts, recently reached $50,000 in total donations to the Make A Wish Foundation; sent me a package of cedar grilling planks as a wedding gift. That’s a true friend right there. While I haven’t had the opportunity to use them yet, I have done some reading so I don’t ruin such a thoughtful and perfect wedding gift.

The idea behind cedar planks is that the plank acts much like a normal frying pan, except the wood should smolder and smoke as you cook. That smoldering and smoking will impart a wonderful woodsy flavor into whatever your cooking, so you’ll want to us something that’s light in flavor. Since the smoking time will be brief, not a three or four (or seven) hour ordeal as in a smoker, a strong flavored meat or fish will not get enough smoke flavor.

The number one tip for using a cedar plank when you’re grilling is to make sure you soak the planks for at least an hour before cooking. If you don’t, the heat from the grill will basically burn up your plank. The water lets the heat work on evaporating the water first, which will impart more flavor on the food you’re grilling, and protects the wood more. The longer you soak it the better but one hour is usually sufficient.

Number two - keep a spray bottle or some other water source (but not a hose!) handy. The plank may catch fire as you’re cooking, it is wood after all, so you’ll want to keep water handy to put out the fire and add more water. Smoldering is good, flames are not.

Number three - like with a pan, you’ll also want to spray down the board with some Pam or brush it with like an olive oil. That’s just to keep your food from sticking, you’ll never flip it (you’re cooking it as you wood in an over, indirect heat).

There you go!