This is a delicious and historic way to cook salmon, though it takes a bit of planning. And dry weather. I learned this the hard way when I realized that I needed to soak the planks several hours before cooking, and then rain made our fire pit unusable.

Rather than waste perfectly good fresh salmon, some compromises were made. I held off cooking for another day to let the planks soak for a good 24 hours. The original recipe also calls for thicker oak boards, which are great if you can find them relatively inexpensively, but my grocery also sells thinner cedar planks right next to the salmon counter. Bingo, sort of! Since we hadn’t cleaned out the fire pit since the last time we used it, the rain had filled it with muddy ash. And since lye isn’t part of this dish, I opted to move the process into our smoker.

This is originally a Viking recipe from Eat Like a Viking: A Guide to Anglo-Saxon & Viking Age Food & Drink by Craig Brooks, Vol. 1, p 13. It can be used to cook trout as well, so use your best judgment and whatever fish you have. I’ve added salt below as it wasn’t in the original, but seems like a good idea.

1 salmon fillet or whole trout
2-3 cm. thick plank of Oak (big enough to fit the fish) (or 1cm cedar plank)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. fresh parsley, roughly chopped
salt (to taste)
water (and/or beer)

Soak the plank for 3-4 hours or overnight in water. Beer or wine could be substituted for the water.

If you are cooking a whole trout or other fish instead of just a fillet, start by gutting and removing the head, tail, and spine. Leave the two fillets attached to each other, making a butterfly. Clean the fish, place the bay leaves and parsley on the flesh of the trout and close the fillet, skin side out. 

If you are just cooking a fillet, rub the herbs into the non-skin side and sprinkle a little salt.

If you are cooking over an open fire, place the fish onto the plank and place the plank over hot coals. Leave to slowly cook for about 1 hour, until cooked through, flipping the fish halfway through. The bottom of the wood will scorch and burn, cooking the fish through gentle steaming and lightly smoking.

If you are cooking in a smoker, place the plank inside and set the temperature to 225F. Smoke for at least an hour. Check for doneness with a meat thermometer — when it hits 140-150F in the thickest part, it’s ready to eat.