Hit a lumber yard and buy a cheap knotty cedar board.

hippee wrote:Can I practice my karate skills with these?

pine works better for board breaking, it's a softer wood. plus, the grain in these planks goes down the length of them, instead of across the short part...makes for some painful strikes

these seem a bit pricey for something you intend to break anyway ;)

Greshmahg wrote:
Yes, they can be reused - once, safely. Flip the board over and cook that way a second time. Do NOT cook on the same side of the board more than once, as you don't know what sort of food-borne problems you can create.

any idea how far into the wood those things go? i've always wondered if you could just sand or plane away the top of the board and have a renewed cooking surface

This is a great price at almost a 1.50 for a plank it's a great. Most of the time I see this price for 4 piece set.

In for 2. I can't wait to try these out!

smallgreendemon wrote:These are look very similar to cedar planks I've used before. In the oven, you can get many uses out of them if you soak them in water and then coat them in oil before baking or broiling.

On the grill, you typically get one use to a side, because the "down" side chars quickly. However, if you then save the charred-on-both-sides board and break it up, you're left with some excellent cedar charcoal to mix in with the composite briquettes the next time you grill.

Note: if you are worried about sterilizing your cooking implements, you can always heat the board first and drop the fish on top when it's already toasty (i.e. above boiling temperature).

As others have said, if you want to buy cooking materials from a hardware store, make sure that the wood isn't treated. It is usually sprayed with a variety of chemicals to prevent rotting, weathering, insect burrowing, etc. (Yes, I've gone to a hardware store and asked. Sometimes you can get untreated materials; often, you can't.)

NEVER use cedar in your charcoal bed. The smoke is poisonous. Avoid any conifers as fuel. As a plank, it's OK as long as you soak it well and avoid burning. You are getting the flavor from the oils that are released from the heat, not the smoke.

dubya13 wrote:any idea how far into the wood those things go? i've always wondered if you could just sand or plane away the top of the board and have a renewed cooking surface

Wood is porous, and microscopic organisms are well, teeny-tiny.

Find a better use of your time and your sandpaper.

These are disposable. Throw them away.

Or reuse if you have a deathwish.

Gatzby wrote:Congratulations! How do you feel?

A mixture of fear and excitement. I needed something that said Woot on it...and the last Wootoff had 0 Screaming monkeys...

So I've soaked the plank for three hours and I've heated it up and I've flung a big slab o' protein on it and I'm ready to put it into the grill.

Can I add hardier herbs -- I'm thinking bay leaves and rosemary in particular, maybe peppercorns -- around the food? This is meant for low and slow cooking. I still wouldn't add anything more delicate than that, but would those few hardier things accomplish anything?

rileyper wrote:You mean i have to soak my wood in water for 30 minutes to 3 hours

hahahahahah, thanks

JonPM wrote:is the woot logo poisonous?

No, but it is contagious.

Greshmahg wrote:Oh, forgot to point out: I get that you (and a lot of people) reuse your planks often, and no harm comes to you. Just like you can usually eat undercooked turkey or chicken and be OK.

Now here's my counterargument: All it takes is one time for you to wish you had NEVER done it before, and vow to never do it again. And really, wood is inexpensive enough to where you don't have to be that stodgy and cheap with it.

I'm guessing there's a reason it's called Salmonella and not Raweggella or Undercookedturkeyella.

ColdAudio wrote:How would these be for striped bass?

YES!!! Cedar planks are GREAT for striped bass. I use Lemon,butter,garlic salt and Mrs.Dash. Melt it in the microwave and spoon it all over it. HUGE family favorite!

rileyper wrote:You mean i have to soak my wood in water for 30 minutes to 3 hours

Soak it in cider.

If these things come pre-branded with "woot!" than they are a must-have.

D300 wrote:Does anyone realize how slow cedar trees grow???
This is a stupid use of natures resources.

Not only does Man plant trees to use, but more importantly Humans CREATE resources.... not that long ago farmers in Texas lamented the black goop bubbling up in their planting fields.... until someone figured out how to use it for energy. Now, instead of lamenting it, it is a resource!

I bet you bought into the myth about over-population too... take a cross-country flight and look down... it's empty down there! Except for a few cities and towns there is almost nada down below. BTW, all 6.5 billion of us could fit in Texas and we would be no more crowded than San Francisco. Look it up, or do the math yourself!

If you still feel very strongly about Humans using up resources, I could make a suggestion about something YOU could do personally to reduce what you believe to be a problem....

I guess they'd be good for all, in tents, with porpoises, then?

8-)

I have been cedar grilling for years. This is an excellent deal. I usually buy them at a warehouse store.

I have purchased untreated wood at Home Depot and cut it to size myself but it's so thick it isn't really as good. It's also very expensive.

I do reuse my wood that I cook veggies on and it's fine. I will used the planks that are not good to be reused in my smoker to add that hint of cedar. Not as a cooking plank but as I burn it to add flavor.

D300 wrote:Does anyone realize how slow cedar trees grow???
This is a stupid use of natures resources.

And the stupidity of using cedar to build your privacy fences in your back yard on your giant property is replenishing the natural resources faster ?

Alton Brown had a little segment on his show about planking whole fish on the grill. Here's a recipe for it, if you haven't seen the episode.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/plank-grilled-whole-trout-recipe/index.html

scifiguy wrote:No, but it is contagious.

and there's NO cure! Muah ha ha ha!

haveabigjohnson wrote:This is a bit of a technical question, but will the planks get hot?

Maybe if you buy them dinner and a movie.

I wonder how banged up the package will be, filled with solid wood and all...

Knowing woot, it'll unrecognizable!

uh huh huh huh..... wood

BlackbeardBen wrote:I'm totally disappointed in you, Woot.

Western red cedar is NOT actually a cedar.

[tree taxonomy snipped]

So sadly, all your allusions to Gilgamesh and the Cedars of Lebanon are quite inaccurate.

[snip]

But anyway, I expect better from you.

Back here on planet Woot, I loved today's entry. Confabulation, specious attributions, and fantastic connections are just what I want from a Woot product description. Most of us will never see a piece of real cedar in our lives, so all of the cedar lore that we have been absorbing since our youth, along with aromatic hydrocarbons, is based on the North American "cedars" that are such a disappointment to Ben.

When the Kwakiutl, Salash, Haida, and other Northwest Pacific Indians were cooking the world's best salmon on cedar planks, they weren't moaning about a lack of Lebanese cedar. The Europeans were jealous of them!

Besides, in Appendix C of the Epic of Gilgamesh, it says the Gilgamesh grilled on these specific planks. He didn't want to touch the sacred Cedars of Lebanon, what with all those gods keeping an eye on them.

Would these work well to cook bacon strips - i.e., you'd have planked bacon?

Cedar plank carp

Ingredients
1 cedar plank (6 by 14 inches)
2 carp fillets (1 1/2 pounds total)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons brown sugar

Soak cedar plank in salted water for 2 hours, then drain. Remove skin from carp fillet. Rinse the carp under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Generously season the carp with salt and pepper on both sides. Lay the carp (on what was skin-side down) on the cedar plank and carefully spread the mustard over the top and sides. Place the brown sugar in a bowl and crumble between your fingers, then sprinkle over the mustard.

Set grill for indirect grilling and heat to medium-high. Place the cedar plank in the center of the hot grate, away from the heat. Cover the grill and cook until cooked through, around 20 to 30 minutes. The internal temperature should read 135 degrees F. Transfer the nasty, bony, garbage eating carp from the plank and into the trash bin. Serve the plank.

..What is Planck's Constant anyway? 4.14E^-15?

I'm in for two. This summer's going to be a blissful aroma of smokey fish!

brinkszen wrote:WOOTASTIC! In today's disposable society something with a Woot logo I can legitimately set on fire! I AM SO IN FOR ONE!!!
But, praytel, what disposable WOOT is next? Toilet paper with the Woot logo? (another great 12-for-Tuesday!)

Excellent idea, my friend! WOOT! Toilet Paper. Twelve-for! Excellent idea! Gives new meaning to B..O..C.. Instead, get a ROLL of carp!

Definitely in 4 1 ... summer is right around the corner and I feel like bbq'in some salmon

berrynoir wrote:

I'd say you're better off with one or two good plastic cutting boards designed not to be breeding grounds for germs. Not 12 thin pieces of cut timber that happen to be flat but will warp when wet and keep you salmonella nice and cozy.

Au contraire! Wood, has a natural antibiotic property. Plastic cutting boards on the other hand, once they have cuts and scratches in them, provide excellent places for bacteria to hide and live.

Glass cutting boards, besides being hard on knives, are the best if bacteria is what you are worried about. But hey, that's what our immune systems are for. That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.

In for 36

If I line my closet with these will it keep my clothes fresh and bug free?

I'm not sure why people are saying cooking on a plank that has previously had meat on it is deadly... if you heat the wood up to an internal temperature 175 degrees (all the way through), it should be no more deadly than a cooked chicken breast - even if you eat it.

At that point you've cooked any bacteria that seeped their way into the core of the wood. And if you're worried, you can also wash it with soap and water, and then dry it out - without moisture the majority of any remaining bacteria will die after a few hours

In any case, following the same rules as you would for a cutting board (Veggies never go on a board that was previously used for meat) it seems like it would make for safe re-use.

My basic argument is that if you're not cooking the plank long or hot enough to kill any bacteria IN the plank, I'm not sure how much of the bacteria in the fish or the other meat ON TOP OF the plank will be killed...

greggarcia wrote:Not only does Man plant trees to use, but more importantly Humans CREATE resources.... not that long ago farmers in Texas lamented the black goop bubbling up in their planting fields.... until someone figured out how to use it for energy. Now, instead of lamenting it, it is a resource!

I bet you bought into the myth about over-population too... take a cross-country flight and look down... it's empty down there! Except for a few cities and towns there is almost nada down below. BTW, all 6.5 billion of us could fit in Texas and we would be no more crowded than San Francisco. Look it up, or do the math yourself!

If you still feel very strongly about Humans using up resources, I could make a suggestion about something YOU could do personally to reduce what you believe to be a problem....

wow...Ok so space is NOT the limiting factor of sustainability. We have plenty of space, no one who is educated is saying that lack of space = human overpopulation. Its the vast amount of resources that each individual uses (with the problem being mostly in developed countries like USA and China). If we lived like some cultures do in the African continent it's estimated that Earth can support over 10 billion people but if everyone lived like America then the planet would only be able to support 1 billion. Humans don't create resources we use and manipulate them. In fact, your example of Texas oil is not creating but using. Please don't be offended, just be aware that more and more resources are being used and the planet can't give much more.

[edit] and your example of planting trees is manipulation.

I have a bunch of scrap MDF I can cut to size, that way I get a potpourri of wood flavors while the rest of you stiffs are stuck with only cedar.

notsomuch wrote:Soak it in cider.

i have soaked woods in beer too, a great way to use up that leftover from the kegger the night before, go and pour all the half drank beers into a tub, then soak the cedar in that....

cirestan wrote:Too bad you can get 12 foot cedar 1x6's at Home Depot for about $6.00.

Generally it would be pressed/treated wood which would release formeldehyde and other things you don't want in your food -- not a good idea.

the costco near me has fresh multigrain tilapia that turns out killer when you use these!