I used to dread grilling salmon. Every single time, no matter how much oil I brushed on the grates, I'd end up with half a fillet stuck to the grill and the other half falling apart when I tried to flip it. My wife started calling it "salmon hash" because that's basically what landed on the plate. Then my brother-in-law showed up to a Fourth of July cookout with a stack of cedar planks he'd picked up on a whim, and that was the last time I ever fought with a fillet on the grates.
These are the twelve-pack Grill Gourmet cedar planks, made in the USA, and after two full summers of using them for everything from salmon to trout to the occasional bone-in pork chop, I can tell you exactly why they've earned a permanent spot in my grilling drawer, right next to the tongs and the meat thermometer. Here are ten real reasons, no fluff, just what I've noticed cooking for my own family and for a house full of relatives at reunion time.
Tired of salmon that sticks to the grate and falls apart on the flip?
A soaked cedar plank solves both problems at once, no flipping required. Grab a 12-pack and see for yourself.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →You never touch the grates, so nothing sticks
The whole reason I started using these planks is the sticking problem, and it's the first thing that got solved. The fillet sits on the wood the entire cook, skin side down, and never once makes contact with the metal grates underneath. No spatula fight, no torn skin, no half a fillet left behind stuck to the bars. I lay the fish down once at the start and it lifts off in one clean piece at the end, every time.
No more flipping, so no more falling apart
Salmon is delicate, especially once it's cooked past that first flake. The second you try to flip it on bare grates, you risk it breaking into pieces right there over the coals. With a plank, you never flip at all. The heat comes up from underneath through the wood, and the top of the fillet finishes with the ambient heat and gentle smoke inside a closed lid. One placement, one removal, done, and the fillet stays whole from start to plate.
The smoke flavor is gentler and more forgiving than other smoking methods
I've tried piling wood chips straight in a foil packet on the burner before, and that puts out a heavier, almost bacon-like smoke that can quickly overpower a delicate fish. A soaked cedar plank smokes slower and lower, giving the salmon a mild, sweet, almost toasted-wood flavor instead. It complements the fish rather than fighting it, and it's a lot harder to accidentally oversmoke your dinner.
It buffers the heat so the fish cooks evenly, top to bottom
Direct grate contact means the bottom of the fillet gets blasted while the top lags behind, which is exactly how you end up with a dry underside and a barely-warm center. The plank acts like a buffer, spreading the heat out so a fillet in the 1.5 to 2 pound range cooks through evenly in about 15 to 18 minutes on medium heat with the lid down. No crusty dry edges, no undercooked middle, just consistent doneness edge to edge.
Cleanup is basically nothing
When the fish comes off, the plank goes straight in the trash, or if it's not too charred through, I'll save a still-solid one for a lower-stakes weeknight cook a day or two later. Compare that to scrubbing baked-on salmon skin and burnt oil residue off cast iron grates for ten minutes with a wire brush. This alone has made me actually look forward to grilling fish on a Tuesday instead of putting it off for the weekend.
It doubles as the serving tray, which makes you look like you know what you're doing
I'll pull the whole plank off the grill with a pair of long tongs, set it right on a wooden cutting board or a trivet, and carry it straight to the table, fish and all. It looks like something out of a nice restaurant, and honestly it's the laziest presentation trick I've ever used. My mother-in-law asked where I got my "fancy serving boards" the first time she saw it, and I didn't correct her.
Twelve planks means you can feed a crowd without babysitting the grill
Family reunion cookouts around here mean feeding fifteen to twenty people at once, and with a stack of these planks I can run four or five side by side on a big grill, load each one with its own fillet, and let them all go at the same pace. Nobody's plate finishes five minutes ahead of everyone else's the way it does when you're staggering fillets on open grates one at a time.
They're made in the USA from actual untreated cedar, and you can tell
I got burned once buying planks off a bargain rack at a big box store that had a faint chemical smell right out of the packaging, like something had been sprayed on the wood. These Grill Gourmet planks smell like clean cedar and nothing else, which matters a lot when that wood is sitting an inch under your food and heating up for twenty straight minutes.
Soaking them is the only prep step, and it's about as foolproof as grilling gets
Thirty minutes to an hour submerged in water, weighted down with a plate so they don't float up and dry out on top, is all it takes. I do this while I'm seasoning the salmon and getting the grill up to temp, so it adds essentially zero extra time to the whole process. No marinating required, no brining required, though a simple brown sugar and dijon glaze brushed on before it goes on the plank does wonders.
They stretch a long way and keep paying off cook after cook
A twelve-pack covers a whole season of Sunday dinners and then some, and I've come to think of them less like a one-time purchase and more like a pantry staple I restock the same way I restock charcoal. Compared to the ruined fillets I used to toss in the trash back when I was fighting the bare grates, planks that actually deliver a whole fish every time feel like the better deal by a long shot. I keep a few soaking in a zip bag in the fridge so I'm never caught without one on a Sunday afternoon.
What I'd Skip
I wouldn't try to reuse a plank a third time. By the second use it's already thinner, more brittle at the edges, and more likely to crack or catch a small flame partway through the cook. The smoke flavor fades fast after that first go anyway, so you're not gaining much by pushing your luck. I also wouldn't skip the soak, even for a quick weeknight cook when you're in a hurry. A dry plank dropped straight onto a hot grill will smoke hard and fast and can catch fire at the edges, which is not the gentle, even smoke you're going for with this whole method.
The best compliment I ever got on salmon was my father-in-law asking if I'd started smoking fish professionally. All I did was soak a board of cedar for an hour.
Ready to stop babysitting salmon on the grates?
Pick up the 12-pack of Grill Gourmet cedar planks and turn your next fillet into the easiest cook of the week.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →