I went to buy what was advertised as "poached" salmon from my supermarket's prepared food counter and noticed that some of the edges were browned, so I was like, "Huh?". I interrogated the guy whose response was more or less unintelligible, but he did use the word "pan" which made me even more confused. How are they using a pan to "poach" salmon?
So, naturally, I escalated the situation to customer service who summoned the cooking manager. From her statements it quickly becomes evident that she did not know what "poaching" means. She reveals that the salmon is actually put on pans and then exposed to steam to cook it. Obviously there must be some additional heat source other than just the steam because browning is occurring.
So, I am wondering what is this machine that supermarkets have that is being used to make fake poached salmon. Is there such a thing as a steam oven or something like that? What is the technology here?
Best Answer
After further inquiries and experimentation I have discovered when cooked salmon is left out for a long time it starts to turn dark orange at the edges, probably due to oxidation. So, possibly the browning is due to being left out a long time, not over cooking, however, it could be due to overcooking.
After I complained about steamed salmon being sold as "poached" salmon, the supermarket changed the label on it.
There are apparently steam ovens and also "combi ovens" that cook with both steam and heat. If they were using a combi oven in heat/steam mode, which a lot of places due because it cooks faster, then the salmon could be getting over cooked.