Attention planked salmon lovers... which is your favorite wood for planks?

I voted for cedar cause I haven't had the alder yet.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Tried them both and love them both. The kids like cedar the most, so cedar got the nod.

I use a cedar plank soaked in wood when ever I BBQ salmon. It gives the fish a great smoked flavor. Then I put butter, pepper, a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and Tabasco sauce on it. mmmmmmmmmm!

I've grilled with both and find the cedar smoke much sweeter tasting. I prefer it, but am suprised to find myself in a slight minority so far.

Cedar all the way! I use maple surup on the fish while BBQing. Chicken is also good on the planks too!

Fortunately, I don't often use a plank when cooking salmon. When I needed a cedar "plank" I got a cedar shake from a shake mill for free. Good thing, too. I was shopping at the mall last night, and the "stuff from Washington" store had cedar planks for baking salmon for $39! And I thought we were having an economic recession.

And alder? Well, I get that from the woodshed.

Both work well and impart a sweet, slightly smoky flavor. I'm partial to alder, tho.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I only use a small piece of cedar on the grill and put the salmon on aluminum foil. Saves a lot of cedar. You don't need that much smoke to impart the flavor and you certainly don't need a piece that is the size of your fillet.

I just cut about a 2" piece off of a piece of 1 x 8 and soak it for an hour. Put it on the hot grill to get it smoking about 5-6 minutes before you put the seasoned fish on the grill on the aluminum foil tray. Keep the heat going and it's done and pleasantly smoked in 10-14 minutes. You can adjust the size of the piece of cedar for the amount of time you expect to cook your fillet, but that small piece will smoke for about 15 minutes.

I leave the partially burned cedar in the grill after I turn it off and it smokes a little more when we barbeque steaks or chicken. It's goooood.

I will try the alder next time. I don't see why it wouldn't be good too.

Neither.

All one needs is some olive oil, cilantro and limes, right Rooster?

Fillet, skin, and butter-fly your pieces of fish so they are in nice, thin, even single proportioned sizes.

Chop up the cilantro and add to a pan of oil. Warm. Add salt & pepper if you feel like it.

Get your BBQ painfully hot and keep it that way. Once hot, hit both sides of the fish in the oil/cilantro mixture.

Slap on grill for about 1-2 minutes (no more) on each side. You can EASILY over cook fish this way. Take it off the heat when you think it is way UNDERCOOKED. All fish will continue to cook and finish off of the heat.

Take off grill and squeeze 1/4-1/2 lime on it.

Easiest and best salmon/steelhead/halibut you can make. No need for boards, foil, sugars, and all that other crap. Most other recipes just "mask" the flavor of the fish with something else.

I'm for the cedar.

Go to lumber yard. Buy cedar fence board. Cut to the size of your fillet. Soak in water.

Coat fillet with light olive oil and add fresh garlic, fresh parsley, and kosher rock salt.
Top off with light coating of brown sugar.

Grill until meat flakes and keep a water bottle handy for flareups.

Last month I fed 60 people (1 white king from westport, and 3 coho) this way and had kids asking for more of the "candy". The adults were passing on dessert for more fish. I ended up digging a 1'x3'x3' hole in the ground and dumping in a 20 lb bag of briquets in the bottom in order to have a large enough cooking surface so no one had to eat cold fish.

I'm with Salmo on this one....I live in a valley and there are numberous alders around here. My dog usually brings me more limbs than I can use. I run them through the cut off saw and toss them in a bucket for bar b q's and smoking. I throw the sticks for him a few times too (wouldn't want to ruin a good thing). I use only dry limbs, but I have never considered buying "smoke".

I have in the past used cedar root stock for steaks....very good!

Just to show you how far out in left field I am...I use briquets....and don't own a gas grill. Bizarre, ain't it?