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Posted Today, 06:02 PM Howdy KKers! So last evening was a nice night to try a cook that I only do occasionally ... planked salmon. I found these Canadian Sugar Maple planks at the local BBQ Speciality Shop and they were on sale ... at $14.95! I'm a sucker and got a package as I had a nice couple of pieces of salmon marinating in an olive oil, garlic, a tad bit of lemon juice, red pepper flakes, etc. Here is that cook. I soaked the planks about 2 hours as prescribed on the packaging and here it is going on the grate. This picture shows the salmon placed on the plank after the plank had heated for about 45 minutes and was flipped. I decided to use the marinade and poured it on top of the salmon. Here is a top view immediately the salmon went on the plank. This is a shot of the salmon right before I pulled it. Now the table shots ... This is a salad a Friend made for me; her's was about a third this size! Pete The Salt Pig likes seeing me eat salad instead of his kin! Here are a couple of money shots. This was a really nice cook. I'm a big fan os fish and I'll cook fish just about any way you can imagine. In every previous cook, I've always tossed the plank but this time the Canadian Sugar Maple came through the cook in great shape. I washed it off and put it back on the grate to sanitize and dry at the direction of the guys at the BBQ Speciality Store. We'll see how that works out. Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July Holiday. Please don't drink and drive!

We don't often talk about cooking fish on our KKs, but this evening, I had my first attempt at cooking Salmon. Kept it really simple... Placed on Frogmatt, added some Lemon juice, and cooked over Coffee char. Was a bit concerned that the Coffee char might be too strong for the fish, but that wasn't the case at all. In fact, the Coffee char added a wonderful flavor which complemented the salmon perfectly. The salmon ended up being flaky, yet incredibly moist... Just what we'd expect from a KK.

Hey everyone I did my first KK cook tonight. Overall, it went very well. I do have one question: Do you close your bottom vent when you open the lid to check the food, baste, or whatever? My temps soared when I opened the lid. It didn't affect this cook at all, just wondered for future cooks. I soaked the planks for 2 days. That wasn't my plan, I just didn't get home in time last night to use them. Worked out fine. They didn't char much, so next time I might toast them for a few minutes on each side before placing the fish. That, or put them on the lower grate. My wife made the glaze, not sure what all went into it - apricot preserves, some whole grain mustard, a few pieces of diced up jalapenos, not sure what else. Sweet and spicy. Very good. My controller info is posted below - sorry, an over temp error popped up at the end when I was taking the fish out and I didn't clear it in time, so the screen is a bit washed out. Ignore the light blue areas, that's the fan speed, but I didn't have the fan connected for this cook. I don't have my dome thermo yet, so I used my HeaterMeter to monitor the grate temp (indicated by the orange line). The dip at 18:35 was just me opening the lid to peek at the coals. Probably shouldn't have done it, but I was curious. I was shooting for 350 and ended up around 360 and very slowly climbing when I put the fish on around 19:15. I made very few adjustments to get there. It took me a bit to get the fish on as I had to also snake the food probe through the grommet and get it placed. It's a bent probe and I didn't straighten it quite enough. It goes in, but you have to get the angle right. I'll fix that before the next cook. You can see my temp spiked to over 400 degrees after that - because I had the lid open too long. That's where I a m wondering if you would have temporarily shut the bottom vent. The remaining dips are when I opened the lid to glaze the salmon. I should have started that a bit earlier to really get the glaze to set better, but it still worked out. On the planks: (No plated shot) ETA: They came out perfect. The most juicy salmon I've ever had. First cook impressions: Startup was really fast. I lit using 1 Rutland starter cut in half. In about 6 minutes, I had 2 areas of lump well lit with flames a few inches high. I'll need some practice with that top vent. I probably twisted that thing 30 times trying to remember which way was open and which was closed... and how far open was I??? The probe port also has a learning curve. And speaking of curve, straightening my food probe more will help. I really need my side tables. Can't wait till they get here Amazed at how (relatively) cool the outside of the grill stayed. It was the hottest around the "waistline", but I could still hold my hand there for 5 - 8 seconds without any discomfort. Heat soaking will take a long time - longer than I will have available most nights. I think that's alright though, I'll mostly be using it to grill during the week with the more elaborate cooks on the weekend. The coals shut down very fast.

Was fortunate to catch a few of these amazing creatures a few weeks ago in Idaho. Here is Idaho Joe with one I got on the first day Had a few guests over and I always like to impress this group with the KK if possible. Had a small brisket point and ti-tip in the sous vide for 48 hours. While the beef rested, I go the Chinook salmon on planks and on the KK. The plan was to season simply with garlic salt blend and get the fish cooking. Once the fish got about a third of the way done, I would add dill and butter to one and generously coat the other with an asian teriyaki glaze I love- Soy Vay As the butter melted, I would move the pat a bit for even coating. The asian glaze was applied 3 or 4 times Once I saw a restaurant really cook the heck out of the grill plank and serve it smoking table side. Ever since, I have been doing my salmon much longer and darker and it seems to come out amazing. Was a big hit with the guests! After a few cold beverages, Idaho Joe and I made a play on beer can chicken on his Kamado. I actually schmeared the salmon head in hoisin sauce and it was pretty amazing. Not to gross anyone out but you cannot believe how big the eyes are on those things- Too bad neither of us were brave or beverage enough to try one- Thanks for looking! Paul-

Sunday night dinner...