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Rick
05-09-2008, 08:02 PM
We've talked about a lot of ways to cook but I had never heard of cooking on a board. Then again, I'm always a bit behind the times:

http://bbq.about.com/od/fishandseafood/a/aa100204a.htm

crashdive123
05-09-2008, 08:04 PM
Did this quite a bit while living up in the PNW.

Tahyo
05-09-2008, 08:06 PM
You can buy those planks at quite a few places these days. I've done it a couple times with salmon, but all in all I'm a fried catfish kind of guy.

Rick
05-09-2008, 08:06 PM
I would think you could do this over hot coals in the woods. Split a piece of wood and use the flat side for cooking on (shrug). Just a guess.

I've packed my food in mud and tossed it in the fire. Fish is pretty good that way or a baked potato but I'd never used a flat board.

Rick
05-09-2008, 08:08 PM
Deep fried catfish and hush puppies, green onions and slaw. That is a real meal.

crashdive123
05-09-2008, 08:09 PM
Splitting a piece of wood is the way that I did it most times. The key (for me at least) was making sure the split piece wasn't too thick. If it was, I usually burned the edges.

Tahyo
05-09-2008, 08:13 PM
Deep fried catfish and hush puppies, green onions and slaw. That is a real meal.

You bet it is. I like my own the best, but occasionally when we go out to eat I'll order some if it's American catfish. More and more places are importing from elsewhere. I recently wrote the "Cracker Barrel" corp and asked them if their's was US or imported. They assured me it was US.
Cracker Barrel's is not the best, but my wife insists on us meeting some family members there once a month and I usually get the catfish.

Rick
05-09-2008, 08:22 PM
I had an uncle that lived on the river and he always had channel and blue socked back. He had a huge deep fryer that he had made. It had a burner from a gas furnace that heated the fryer. That stuff was the best. He had a small garden and he'd either have green onions or a nice thick sliced onion. I have left his place sick from eating more than once.

Tahyo
05-09-2008, 08:42 PM
We live on a little lake here and there's channel cats in it. I don't fish for sport anymore and only fish to eat. When I get hungry for fresh ones, I just set a 10 hook trout line out at night for a few hours off and on. Then I'm done for a while.

Ken
05-09-2008, 09:27 PM
You can buy those planks at quite a few places these days. I've done it a couple times with salmon, but all in all I'm a fried catfish kind of guy.

Okay, so how about some catfish recipes? I've tried it about 10 times. One time was down south, where I figured it would be done right. It was just "okay" everytime.

Chris
05-09-2008, 09:31 PM
I do it all the time. I mostly like cedar, tried a bunch of other woods, not working.

The planks you buy at cooking shops or whatever, the planks specifically made for plank grilling, are stupidly expensive.

Buy a 1x10 or 1x8 rough sawn cedar board at the lumberyard.

Soak it in water (or beer, or wine, or lemon juice) overnight, make sure it is submerged. I cut it about 10 inches long and stick it in an 13x9 baking dish to soak. A bucket or a (clean/new/unused) cat pan works good too of course.

Preheat the grill on high, then turn it to medium, put the food on the board, put the board on the grill, close the lid, and wait. Cooking times are much longer of course.

Also, you can if you want just put the board on one side of the grill and the food on the other, the affect is the same.

I mostly do salmon and pork, but any fish works.

Ridge Wolf
05-10-2008, 01:38 AM
This plank method reminds me of catching carp.. cleaning the carp on a board... throwing the fish away and eating the board.. seriously though, I have never done this although I know it can be done. My only question is about the possibility of not getting the top side cooked. If the fish is insulated from an open fire how does the top of the fish get cooked being furthest away from the heat source? The article read that flipping the fish is not an option.

I have seen fish and other survival gourmet items cooked in banana leaves also and those were just tossed in the fire creating an oven effect. That, I can understand. The only other cuisine I know of that is cooked on a board is Pizza.

crashdive123
05-10-2008, 07:17 AM
Plank cooking uses indirect heat - kind of like smoking. That's why it takes quite a bit longer to cook the fish. Also why it is important to soak the plank - so it does not become fuel for the fire.

Rick
05-10-2008, 07:21 AM
Ridge - Once you close the lid on the grill/smoker you have, in effect, an oven. Even though the heat is indirect it still circulates throughout the appliance.

dilligaf2u2
05-10-2008, 06:19 PM
I am not a big fish eater and NEVER cat fish. Something that ugly needs to be left alone! Bull heads in the 3 to 4 inch are all I have seen in this area.

I used to fish a lot. I just stopped one day and have not been out to fight with the crouds sense. There is not a lot of water in this area and I can never just get away from it all, here.

Don

Alpine_Sapper
05-10-2008, 09:06 PM
man I grew up on catfish. We had fried cat at LEAST once a week when I was a kid. My grandparents used to take us out to one of three restaurants that sat on the Red and sold all you can eat cat, whole or filet's. As I got older we used to do it ourselves instead, especially when I moved away. Mudcat's pretty strong sometimes but the farm raised stuff is most definitely tasty. Nowdays I prefer it blackened over fried for health reasons, but I'll still throw down on a fryer if outdoors with some friends. I don't have time to fish much but most of the markets around here have it, and it's cheap.