Wood Paper - Cooking with Olive, Chestnut, Pear and Apple

The Roasting Plank Company is all about experimenting with the different flavours of woods and food. I currently have Roasting Planks, BBQ Planks and Wood Paper in four woods - oak (heavier smoke flavour, great for steaks), beech (subtle sweet flavour), cherry ( subtle mild fruity flavour) and cedar (sweet, spicy flavour).

I have tried so many combinations of foods and wood flavours and mostly have succeeded with some lovely recipes (please see website)but some results have been wierd or sometimes really bad. I tried a piece of steak in a Cedar Wood Paper and the result was a sweet tasting steak - not for me but who knows maybe there is someone somewhere who might like a sweet steak! On the other hand I was really pleased with my cheese and wood experiments, I tried some goat's cheese on a cedar Roasting Plank in the oven and result was truly amazing. I got some breadsticks and dipped into my warm, slighty runny sweet,cedar tasting goats cheese. A real discovery.

Yesterday was a wood fun night, a chance to experiment with more woods. I got some olive, pear, apple and chestnut in Wood Paper and tried each one with some white fish, prawns and thin slices of chicken. These foods absorb more of the wood flavours so I can really see how well (or not)they taste. The funny thing about wood is there is no knowing the taste until you try it, the name of the wood or the colour or grain means nothing when it comes to taste.
The results :
Chestnut: very close to oak but not as 'oaky', much subtler taste. I liked this and could see using it when oak would be too heavy a taste. The next step is to try this in a BBQ Plank, unfortunately the tree isn't big enough to make a Roasting Plank.
Pear : I love the idea of pear Wood Paper, but strangely there was really no taste. The food was moist and tender but I really couldn't taste any wood flavour at all.
Apple : now this was a good result, a subtle taste of unsweetened cider. I really like this one and look forward on trying it again with some pork. I'm going to see if I can get this in a BBQ Plank.
Olive : the most beautiful looking wood but not a great taste. It really tasted of earth but in a very bitter way, what a shame because it really looked the best wood on the table.

There are only a few woods that I can make into Roasting Planks and BBQ Planks, it all depends on the size of the tree but there is a lot of wood that can be tried as Wood Paper and I look forward to getting around to trying them all.

Anyone with ideas or suggestions on what to try next ?

If you would like to try cooking on wood then visit my website : www.theroastingplankcompany.co.uk

The Wood Foodie