Cedar Plank Salmon

Being a product of 34 years of Southern raising and conditioning I cannot help but come to quick conclusions when answering questions posed to me about food. Last week I received a call from my wife while I was working and she was grocery shopping. The question was "Does fish sound good for dinner?" Within a seconds time my brain had flashed a full color HD picture of a spread that is a southern boys dream. There was fried fish, french fries, slaw, hush puppies, tartar sauce, Louisiana Hot Sauce and ice cold beer. Oh man I could already smell the fish frying! Before the slobber could clear up enough for me to formulate an answer, the wife follows up with, I'm looking at a beautiful fillet of salmon and that sounds soooo good. With the HD picture gone and major disappointment having already set in, I respond with a less than enthusiastic, "sure babe that sounds fine." It is not that I don't like an occasional piece of salmon, it is just that the southern conditioning that has made Lipitor the most prescribed medication in the history of mankind makes my brain see fried fish as a 10 and salmon as a 7. Now if we are talking a salmon croquette fried in a spicy fish batter and adorned with Louisiana Hot then that is more like a 9! Well I know how this story is going to end so my thinking has now shifted gears and I'm trying to formulate a plan to take that salmon from a 7 to as close to a 10 as I can get it.

It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I am looking forward to getting off work and  hitting the deck for a relaxing evening of cooking. The plan for the salmon is to do a quick dry brine and grill it on a cedar plank. Dry brining is a process of applying a dry rub to the salmon and letting it sit for varying amounts of time to draw moisture out of the fish. As the moisture is drawn out the the dry rub soaks it up and becomes syrupy with flavors penetrating the fish. This is a short brine that will moderately draw moisture and impart some nice flavor. The brine is based on a recipe from a Weber website and consists of brown sugar, kosher salt, dill, granulated garlic, onion powder, savory and tarragon. The salmon will brine for approximately 5 hours while I finish my work day.


Here is the salmon in the early stages of the brine. You can see around the edges where moisture is beginning to be drawn out.

At the end of the brining period the salmon will be thoroughly washed to remove the brining rub. After a good washing we will find a cedar plank that will be a good fit and we will prepare the plank and the salmon for the grill.

 

This was a good fit. The plank will soak for a couple of hours and the salmon will go in the fridge for a little more drying.

 

Today we will be cooking on a ceramic all purpose cooker. These cookers are based on cooking techniques that have been used for 3000 years. The first commercially successful cooker of this style in the U.S. was the Big Green Egg, which has grown in popularity over the last 35 years. I will be cooking on a newer entry into this market, the Primo XL. I chose this product because it is made in America and has a slightly larger cooking surface than the BGE. They are comparable in price and I would recommend either of these units to anyone that likes to do a variety of cooking methods. They will cook low and slow for smoking with outstanding air control allowing very long cooks in that 200 to 225 degree temperature. They will hit temperatures that a regular grill cannot hit due to the heat retention made possible by the ceramic body. Steaks can be seared at 600 degrees and they serve as an outstanding wood fired pizza oven. These units use lump charcoal for fuel and wood chunks can be added for smoking.

 

After soaking for a couple of hours I have brushed the plank with grape seed oil to prevent the salmon from sticking. I will put it on the grill for a couple of minutes on each side to season the plank. You can use these planks directly over medium high heat which results in a stronger smoke flavor. Today with salmon, I will lightly season the plank and then cook with indirect heat for a milder smoke flavor.

The salmon has been removed from the fridge and dusted with the dry rub. This rub uses Turbinado sugar which is raw sugar that is very fine and dry with a sand type texture. It will have most of the ingredients of the brine except for salt and dill. So we have Turbinado sugar, granulated garlic, onion powder, savory and tarragon.

The grill temperature has come up to 350 and we are ready to put the salmon on. As previously stated we will cook with indirect heat. This cooker has 2 ceramic plates which can be installed between the grill surface and the fire below that act as a shield to protect the against direct flame. In this case I will use one plate and protect half the cooking surface, allowing me 2 cooking zones. When the salmon goes on I will quickly stabilize the grill temperature @325 and cook to an internal temperature of 135 degrees.

 

This is a rather quick cook. You can insert a probe and monitor the temperature as you cook but in this situation I feel comfortable enjoying a cold beer and checking the temperature a couple of times during the cook with an instant read thermometer. I checked once @ 95 degrees and checked again and it was @ 124 degrees. At that point I knew it would by the escalation in temperature that it would be just a couple of minutes and prepared for it to come off.

Tonight we will serve our salmon with black beans and rice and a salad. The salmon has a slightly sweet and smokey flavor so I will use a Zesty Italian dressing and serve a fruity Chardonnay with a little touch of oak.

My original goal was to take salmon that I rate as a 7 and try to give  it a make over and have it looking like a 10. I can't say this was a 10 because when I see a 10, it is a plate of fried crappie fillets with fried sides! That being said, I will say that we got this salmon up the scale from that boring 7. I had a beautiful afternoon on the deck doing what I love to do and the end result was a fine meal. On a closing note I will say, til I see you again cook with passion or get out of the kitchen.

Photos can be seen in full size by double clicking.