Cedar planked salmon is SUPERB! Thanks to Jim I tried it

[Okanagan]

Jim, your post  about cedar planked salmon nudged us into trying it.  WOW!  Best tasting salmon of the year.  The cedar gives it a subtle cedar flavour, which does not sound to me like it would be good but tastes excellent.

Grandson Code told me he had cedar planked salmon.  He considers it the best tasting way to cook it.  He said he would get me a cedar plank, and was back in minutes with a slab he had split from a chunk of cedar in our fire wood pile.



 He also gave me two pieces of vacuum frozen salmon that would just fit on the small experimental plank.  He said that the natural split cedar was fine, that it did not need to be planed smooth.  I also searched and found the post where Jim cooked salmon this way last year. 

Code said to soak the plank a long time, so I submerged it in clean water for 30 hours.



 He likes salt and pepper only on his planked salmon, with maybe a slice of onion or lemon on top.  I had already spritzed the salmon with liquid smoke and dashed on some seasoning salt, pepper, onion flakes, garlic flakes and though I do not like sweet salmon, I sprinkled one small pinch of raw sugar on each piece.



I cooked it on an open fire over a bed of alder coals, and jury rigged a reflector oven with foil to get heat on top. 

It is KILLER good tasting. 

For curiosity sake, a pic of the bottom of the plank after cooking. Barely blackened.

[Hawks Feather]

Once again you have me wanting fresh salmon. My wife and I are headed to the UP next week and may give lake salmon a try. Won't be quite the same, but hopefully close.

[pitw]

Sounds wonderful.  The cost of cedar out here mite be a problem.

[Okanagan]

Sounds wonderful.  The cost of cedar out here mite be a problem.

Yep, cedar is more expensive than salmon!

We have lots of cedar in our forest, tons of it in logging debris, and we pick up enough discarded chunks to use it for kindling. 

[pitw]

Does it matter if the cedar is from 100 year old fence posts.  Railroad fenced with cedar posts along the right of way back in the day.

[nastygunz]

we have a big old Cedar Swamp surrounding our camp loaded with deer and snowshoe hare.

[Okanagan]

We're using western red cedar.  I wonder what it would taste like with the eastern cedar.  That stuff sure is pretty wood.

Re 100 year old fence post:  Bet that would split well.  Wonder if it still has the good flavor?  I think I'd stay away from any posts with creosote 

[nastygunz]

Good carving wood for fishing lures.

[Okanagan]

Good carving wood for fishing lures.

Yellow cedar is even better, carves like cold butter.  That's mostly an Alaska wood, very few yellow cedar down here.

[FinsnFur]

It changes the flavor so much it's stupid.  I'm glad you tried it.
I'm surprised restaurants dont do this.
I got one cedar plank left from when they were cheap. I'm holding out.

[nastygunz]

that reminds me of a blind date I had once, I cedar and ran for my life  

[Okanagan]

A retired commercial salmon fisherman I fished with yesterday has cooked salmon on cedar for decades.  He told me that he has quit soaking the cedar plank, in order to get more smoke on the salmon.  He cooks his on a gas fired grill.

We caught a bunch though it was slow compared to the last few trips.  Never any hot flurries, but a fish now and then from 10 AM till 6 PM. Only one double.  I brought one home about 12 lbs.  My last fish went 14 but we had a limit in the boat so we released it. Four fishermen landed at least 25 fish total, many of them about 12 lbs.