The History of Plank Cooking
Plank cooking, originally used by Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest for cooking salmon and on the East coast for cooking shad (herring) next to an open fire, is now one of the hottest trends in gourmet cooking in North America and Canada. Most up-scale restaurants now feature some sort of plank-cooked entrée on their menus.
When Jason first started his lengthy testing of cooking planks, the first thing he noticed was of course the Smokey flavour that he had heard about, but found the most intriguing point to be that the food kept a high amount of moisture.  Traditionally, food with a smoked flavour is normally quite dry.  This particular was noted on a whole chicken plank-cooked where the meat literally fell away from the bone.

How to Plank Cook

The easiest and most comprehensive guide to plank cooking is featured in a chapter on Jason’s most recent book, “Elements”.  A visual guide to plank cooking is also contained on the Elements DVD contained in the book.

Just quickly though, here is how you get on the road to plank cooking.

All you need is a bbq with a hood and Elements cooking planks. 

Please ensure you are using quality cooking planks specifically manufactured for this purpose.  Any treated wood is poisonous.

Simply soak your planks for 1 hour ensuring that the entire plank is submerged in water (we suggest putting something on top of the planks to weigh them down).

Then put your planks on the bbq to “season”.  You will now when this is complete as the underside of the plank is charred.

Take planks off the BBQ and lay your food on the seasoned side of the plank and put back on the bbq.  Refer to individual recipes for exact cooking time.

Another great thing about planks is they go straight from the bbq to the table.

Jas really does recommend you try plank cooking…at least once!

To purchase your set of 6 Jason Roberts Elements Cooking Planks please email maree@manicj.com