We recently had the opportunity to try out some all natural burger grilling planks from Fire & Flavor, makers of a variety of planks, cedar papers, rubs, brines, and other good things.





Now we at Smoke In Da Eye are huge fans of grilling planks, a sure fire way to control the fire and heat while adding a deep smokey flavor to a dish.  And the idea of planked burgers sounded awesome...if properly executed.

And here's where our issue with these particular Fire & Flavor planks lies.  Let's start at the beginning, pretending we know nothing about plank cooking.  So we turn to the directions on the back of the package. 

Directions
1. SOAK plank under water for at least one hour. 
2. HEAT grill to 350 degrees, add soaked plank to grill rack, close cover, heat 3 minutes and flip plank.
3. SMOKE add food to heated plank, close cover; cook until done, no turning or flipping necessary.
4. ENJOY!

Easy as pie, until we got to step four.  You see there is a huge flaw in these instructions.  By placing an uncooked beef patty on the plank as instructed closing the lid and not turning or flipping, you are left with greyish STEAMED meat resting in a pool of rendered fat and moisture on top of  the smoking plank.  Unfortunately we didn't take a picture but you've probably got one in your mind (think bad cafeteria meatloaf).

You see, when plank cooking anything that requires some direct interaction with the heat and flames (ie thick steaks, chops, burgers, etc.), we normally sear them first then finish them on the plank.  Think of it as two zone cooking with the plank serving as the cool zone.

Now in defense of the fine folks at Fire and Flavor, should one opt to test out the sample recipe they provide inside the packaging, you would see that they instruct cooks to heat the grill to medium-high, oil grates and sear burgers for two minutes per side, remove burgers from the grill, lower the temperature to medium low (about 350 degrees), then heat plank, flip plank, add burger to plank, and cook with lid closed for 8 minutes for medium.  THIS, we would bet, would produce a great burger but unfortunately we stuck to the primary directions as we don't need no stinkin' recipes. 

Anyway, we tried another plank for finishing a seared ribeye (as pictured here) and the flavor of the oak plank was great.  We only hope that they consider reworking the instructions in the near future.


- SmokeInDaEye.com , Home of Bigger, Badder, Bolder Competition BBQ(c)