Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Cedar Planks - Reusable Vs. Disposable

Question

I want to buy some cedar planks for the first time to try some fun looking recipes. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with simple, disposable planks compared to the more expensive planks that claim to be reusable, e.g (Nature's Cuisine NC001 Large Cedar Oven Roasting Plank). Previous advice I've seen on cedar planks suggest you can only reuse them one or two times but I believe they were talking about the simplest planks, the ones you'd just buy at a hardware store.

Answer

The whole idea of using a cedar plank is to char the heck out of the bottom and produce lots of smoke and flavor. My roughly 1/4 inch planks are usually charred pretty well and I simply couldn't see using them a second time. At times, it seems that 1/8 inch or more of the bottom is gone.

If you find a good source for your planks, they should be pretty inexpensive so why push it? I found one of the best sources to be my supermarket right next to the fish counter. $3 - $4 / plank. Seems like a small price to pay when you are grilling a $30 piece of salmon on top of it.

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