Grilling Planks: How To Add Flavor To Your Next BBQ

Apr 1, 2021 | Grilling Planks

The BBQ is a quintessential summer experience, and for good reason! It’s a great way to get together with friends and family, to get to know new neighbors and other new friends, to enjoy an ice-cold beer on a hot day, and, of course, to do all of this while enjoying some juicy, smokey food fresh off the grill.

Naturally, this means that the grill master has a lot riding on their skills and technique because even if everything else is going great, nobody wants to have to use their drink to wash down dry or burnt meat. Even more than that, every grill master wants to make sure their food is more than just a necessary part of the whole deal, they want to make sure that their food is memorable!

Here are a few tips and tricks we think will help you get the most flavor to your next BBQ with easy-to-use grilling planks, and make sure your grilling is a standout part of the day.

grilling planks, cedar planks, how to add flavor to your next bbq

Careful with the Fish

Not all BBQ’s have fish, but there are a whole lot of reasons why there might be fish on the menu. Maybe you just personally want to grill some fish, maybe some guests have some specific dietary restrictions, etc. Whatever the reason may be, it’s always important to know how to handle the food you need to put on the grill.

Grilling fish on its own might not be a huge issue, but if you’re cooking it alongside some red meat, there are a few things that come up. Temperature is one, since ribs, steak, sausages, etc. are going to be able to tolerate a wider range of heat. You want to make sure your fish doesn’t come out dry or burnt, and you don’t just want to avoid catastrophe, your fish should still taste great!

Our proposed solution? Use grilling planks! Cooking fish on a cedar plank gives you a bit more leeway with all of the technical aspects, removes the fish a bit from the intense direct heat the red meat needs, and also helps impart all of that delicious, smokey flavor that you might only otherwise get in a smoker. Without grilling planks, grilling fish and meat together might be a bit of a worry. With some cedar planks, however, it’s a walk in the park—and a flavorful walk at that!

Let the Vegetables Shine with Cedar Grilling Planks

Who doesn’t love some charred veggies fresh off the grill? Some asparagus, some eggplant, even some cebollitas if you’re cooking up some carne asada—some would say that they’re necessary!

All too often, though, these veggies are treated as less than necessary on the actual grill. They’re put on the backburner, pulled off when someone remembers them, and then they’re all crunch and char with little extra flavor. Don’t get us wrong, we love charred veggies, but how can we make sure to do them better justice?

You guessed it: wood planks! Imagine biting into the same charred veggies, but behind the crunch is a world of delicious, oaky flavors. Nothing beats it! The caveat is, of course, that the char isn’t going to come from the wood plank. Make sure to char the veggies on the actual grill as well, but you can leave them cooking on the wood.

Keep Your Grill Clean

This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s important to always remember to clean your grill! First of all, not running a tidy gig can come with expensive consequences. If not cleaning your grill leads to damaging the grill, you might be out of commission altogether until you can get it repaired. Nobody wants that!

Even before that, however, keeping your grill clean is important for both health and flavor reasons. Leaving behind chunks of food means that those chunks are going to go bad, which can make your food both taste funky and potentially get somebody sick down the road. Not cleaning your grill can also lead to rust, which is dangerous for all of the same reasons and more.

Now, nothing replaces a proper full scrub-down, but the job will be made a bit easier if you’re cooking on cedar planks. Of course, not everything you cook on the grill will be done with planks, but if you use planks with the appropriate foods, then there’ll be less waste left over to clean up afterward. That’s more flavor in every bite and less cleaning up for you—everybody wins!

Whatever your BBQ season might look like, we hope that these tips and tricks help you run a safe and, above all, tasteful grill. Grilling planks aren’t just a great aesthetic addition to your backyard get-togethers, they’re a quick and simple way to elevate every single part of your grilling experience!


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