Like most foodies, Cornelius and Sarah Veakins from Ringwood are always keen to try something new and exciting in the kitchen.

So when Cornelius went to the USA and was introduced to a different way of cooking his favourite dish – steak – he couldn’t wait to try it himself.

“My husband is always on the hunt for the best steak,” chuckles Sarah. “He came back from this business trip in the US, all excited after he had this oak-smoked steak.”

The steak in question had been cooked on an oak planking board, which is a relatively common way of cooking across the pond.

“I looked for a plank for his birthday but I couldn’t find one,” she says.

“Eventually I managed to get hold of a piece of untreated oak, so that was his birthday present.”

After some sawing and routing Cornelius had crafted the gift into a cooking plank and immediately set about cooking on it, just like the indigenous Americans used to.

“They used to cook their food on wood, then the cowboys started doing it and then the technique spread across the US,” he says. “For some reason nobody over here has heard of it.”

Which is a surprise because planking is a simple way of cooking, as Cornelius demonstrates.

He simply places a steak on an oak plank (which has been soaking in a bucket of water overnight) and adds a few tomatoes and mushrooms before placing it in the oven for 20 minutes.

“It’s surprising how much water the plank absorbs,” he explains.

“This is then released as steam when it goes in the oven so your food is actually getting steamed as well as oven cooked – this makes it juicier.”

Converts to the art of planking, Cornelius and Sarah have experimented with all sorts of woods and food. In fact they’ve even got their children inventing their own combinations.

“It’s a great way to get the kids involved in cooking; we are constantly experimenting,” she says.

“Cedar goes well with fish, but not steak, sweet potatoes are lovely cooked on the plank, rice didn’t work and courgettes were delicious.

“We really want to try soaking a cedar plank in seawater before we cook fish – it could be good or it could be awful. That’s the art of planking – go forward and experiment, we say.”

With a smile, Cornelius explains how he likes to add alcohol into the soaking process.

“I add a shot of rum into the water, put a peeled pineapple on to a plank, add a little brown sugar and put it in the oven,” he says. “Delicious.”

Planking has proved so popular in the Veakins’ household that Sarah has turned the family hobby into a business and set up the Roasting Plank Company.

“Apart from the oak, all the wood is sourced from Britain; the cedar is from the New Forest,” says Sarah, who only uses FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved wood.

“It’s important for us to be green. The trees are not cut down for us, we buy what is classed as industry waste.”

Cornelius warns foodies against buying wood from a DIY store and making their own planks.

“Most of the wood you get there is treated,” he says. “It would be very dangerous to cook with this.”

As well as planks, which are suitable for oven roasting joints of meat, the Roasting Plank Company sells smaller BBQ planks and wood paper wraps, which are all available from the|roastingplankcompany.co.uk.

The results are impressive too. The steak they cooked for me was one of the tastiest home-cooked steaks I have had and it was certainly the juciest.

“You don’t have to be a great cook,” says Cornelius. “You can be as fancy as you want or as simple as you want.”

If planking sounds like a culinary experience you want to get involved in then get a plank and experiment with variants of the recipes shown overleaf.