Soak Cedar Planks With Bourbon For Unforgettable Grilled Salmon

Salmon's a versatile food to prepare — it turns out delicious whether it's baked, smoked, broiled, or served raw. As long as you avoid common mistakes when cooking salmon, it's hard to ruin the fish. However, say that you want to upgrade the fish with an extra pop, both in flavor and presentation. Well, then consider grilling salmon on cedar planks.

After all, cooking on these food-grade blocks of wood comes with lots of benefits. They'll prevent filets from falling through the grate, all the while imbuing with a special smokey touch — gently shifting a backyard grill into smoker territory. Plus, they're a great way to present salmon to guests, laid atop wood blackened with a nice aesthetic char.

Normally, the cedar planks are first soaked in water, but you can enhance the method even further by placing the boards in bourbon instead. The infused liquor's flavor will gently seep into the fish, as well as add extra aroma through the smoke. And the flavor of the wood matches the spirit; they're both smokey and spiced, a combination that creates magic paired with the fatty salmon.

Don't head to the hardware store for this preparation; you'll want to buy planks designated for the task. Other wood may be treated with chemicals that aren't food safe. Cedar isn't the only wood available — you'll also see oak, hickory, cherry, maple and others. Woods like hickory provide great flavor, too, imbuing foods with a deep sweetness. However, there's something special to cedar's spicy smokiness that melds especially well with salmon. So buy a set of these for the task.

And when it comes to the bourbon don't fret — you don't have to employ an entire bottle of bourbon for such a trick. Rather, use one part bourbon to three parts water to still ensure a nice soak, and attain that spirituous flavor. In fact, you'll actually need the solution to be aqueous, or else dripping liquor from the wood will cause unwanted flare-ups.

Reach for one of the bottom shelf bourbons worth buying, use some in the dish and enjoy the rest. As the liquor's going over heat, the precise flavor palate isn't too important, although you might want to skip out on overproof bourbon. If you don't feel like using some of your precious brown booze for the task, you can also switch to softer alcohols like cider or wine for the soaking step. While these will have a softer effect on the fish, they're still a delicious way to upgrade salmon.

The bourbon-laden plank will certainly imbue a delicious flavor, but take it a step further by crafting a glaze, too. Since one side of the fish is exposed during plank-grilling, it's an ideal opportunity to lather on some delicious, liquor-flavor from both top and bottom.

Start by simply reducing bourbon with a brown sugar or honey, as well as soy sauce, cayenne, and aromatics like garlic in a pan. While the pan-heating is an option, it'll only make that sauce extra sticky, making it the perfect consistency to lather on while plank-grilling. Plus, it'll amplify those caramelization notes, offering a nice dose of sugar in addition to the boozy and smokey notes.

if you're not feeling like grilling, you can prepare over planks in the oven, too. Although it's hard to beat the smokey notes generated by an outdoor grill, there's flexibility to the preparation. So consult the ultimate salmon guide to keep those fish ideas flowing. There's lots of culinary potential with this beloved protein.