Cooking in
Smithers
Indigenous Australian
Cedar Plank Salmon
A fillet of salmon (king/Chinook, sockeye, or coho — the Pacific species) placed skin-side down on a soaked plank of untreated Western red cedar, seasoned simply (salt, sometimes a glaze of maple or honey), and cooked over indirect heat on a grill or beside an open fire for 15-25 minutes until the fish is just cooked through and the cedar has charred on the underside, releasing its aromatic smoke. The fish should be opaque at the edges and still slightly translucent at the centre (carryover heat finishes the cook). The cedar flavour should be detectable but not overwhelming — a background note of resin and sweet wood, not a dominating smokiness.
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Three not yet within reach.
How the 3 are reached
- Not yet within reach
- 3 · western red cedar plank, salmon fillet, maple syrup or honey
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
1 (untreated, food-grade)
Western red cedar plank
Thuja plicata; not treated lumber, not cedar shingles, not Eastern red cedar
Not yet within reach of Smithers · each reach is counted
800 g
salmon fillet
king/Chinook, sockeye, or coho — Pacific species; skin on, pin-boned
Not yet within reach of Smithers · each reach is counted
1 tsp
fine sea salt
Your own market
Optional glaze
2 tbsp
maple syrup or honey
brush lightly over the flesh before cooking
Origin · New ZealandNot yet within reach of Smithers · each reach is counted
To serve
1
lemon
cut into wedges
Your own market
Within reach counts in town, delivered, shipped and the nearest city. A staple counts once it has a local seller. Charted from each shop's own pages; not yet vouched by a cook who shops here.
The larder of Smithers →II
The Method
1
Submerge the cedar plank in cold water for a minimum of 1 hour, overnight if time allows, weighting it down so it stays fully submerged — a saturated plank smoulders and steams rather than igniting, which is the mechanism that perfumes the fish. When you lift it out, it should feel noticeably heavy and the surface should weep water. A dry plank will catch fire on the grill and ruin the cook.
2
Prepare the grill for two-zone indirect heat: one side with live coals or burners on high, the other side unlit or on low, so the plank sits over gentle heat rather than fierce flame that would char its underside and cook the fish unevenly. Close the lid during cooking to create an oven effect. The plank will remain on the cooler side throughout.
3
Season the flesh side of the fillet with fine sea salt. If using a glaze, brush maple syrup or honey lightly over the flesh. The cedar provides sufficient flavour complexity, so do not over-season.
4
Place the soaked plank on the indirect-heat side of the grill and close the lid for 2–3 minutes, until the plank begins to smoke and you detect the first release of cedar resin on the air — a background note of sweet wood, not an aggressive char — so that when the fish goes on, it immediately begins drawing that perfume rather than sitting on cold wood. This priming moment determines how deeply the cedar note will penetrate the fillet.
5
Lay the salmon skin-side down on the smoking plank, close the lid, and do not flip the fish at any point, because it cooks from the bottom through heat conducted by the plank and from the top through heat trapped under the lid — turning it would break that balance and expose the flesh to direct char. Cook for 15–25 minutes. This is where the dish lives or dies: pull the fillet when the edges are fully opaque and the centre holds a thin, glassy, slightly translucent seam at its thickest point, knowing that carryover heat from the plank will finish it — an overcooked fillet cannot be recovered.
6
Lift the plank from the grill and rest the fish on it for 2 minutes, so the heat stored in the wood quietly finishes the centre without any further flame driving it past that glassy seam. When you lean in to serve, the cedar aroma should be present but not dominating — a resinous, slightly sweet background note beneath the salmon's own smell. Squeeze lemon over the fillet and serve directly from the plank.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Wild king (Chinook) salmon at peak season, cooked on a traditional cedar stake tilted before an open alder-wood fire in the Pacific Northwest indigenous manner; a second layer of alder smoke joins the cedar, producing the most complex result the dish is capable of.
02
Estate — Wild sockeye or coho salmon, sourced from a named Pacific fishery; cooked on a seasoned culinary cedar plank over a live hardwood-charcoal fire with the lid closed.
03
Market — Wild Pacific salmon (any of the three named species) from a fishmonger; cooked on a food-grade culinary cedar plank on a gas grill set to two-zone indirect heat.
04
House — Farmed Atlantic salmon is outside the tradition; if substituted, the cedar note and the specific flavour relationship are altered. The dish remains edible but is no longer a cedar plank salmon in the Pacific Northwest sense.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. The soaked plank feels saturated and heavy; water weeps from its surface when lifted — it is ready to go on the grill.
◇Smell. After 2–3 minutes on the indirect heat, the plank releases a faint cedar-resin smoke — sweet and woody, not acrid — signalling it has primed and the fish may be placed.
◇Sight. The fillet edges are fully opaque and white; the centre at the thickest point retains a thin translucent seam. Remove immediately; carryover finishes the cook.
◇Smell. At rest, the cedar aroma is detectable as a background note — present but not dominating the salmon's own smell.
◇Where it lives or dies. Pull the fillet the instant the edges are opaque and the centre holds a slight translucency — carryover heat on the plank finishes the cook, and no technique recovers an overcooked salmon.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
SOV Wheated Rye Whisky
Sons of Vancouver Distillery · Metro Vancouver
Sons of Vancouver Distillery · North Vancouver →Whisky
From British Columbia
Beer
Without alcohol
Americano — Burundi Kayanza (Gatukuza Women Group)
Gatukuza Women Group
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Coffee
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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The working kitchen