J
Jude
Guest
Interesting debate between myself and my family this Christmas day.
Every year, my mom cooks a nice piece of beef, and orders a cold
poached salmon with dill sauce. I do all the appetizers and sides, and
she and I split the work on making desserts.
So last year, she found out that the grocery would do a poached salmon
for less than half the price of the fish market. It was wonderful -
flaky and tender, with a lovely creamy dill sauce.
This year, not so good. My first upset was when I asked her for the
dill sauce to put in a nice bowl for the buffet table. She hands me a
bottle of McCormicks Lemon Dill Marinade. I asked, what the heck is
this? She said that the guy at the store told her its the same thing
they gave us last year, but last year they poured some from the bottles
into a smaller tub and this year they were giving us a whole bottle,
lucky us. Apparently he thought my mom was either a) stupid or b)
overly harrassed byu the holiday shopping already, and he was right.
She took the bottle of marinade. Last year we had a nice thick white
sauce flecked with dill, which appeared to be a sour cream based sauce
like I would make at home. The bottle we got this year was an icky
yellow color, runny like a marinade, and specifically said on the back
that it was for marinading fish or chicken. NOT a sauce for the cooked
salmon. So I grabbed the sour cream and a few lemons, determined to
make a new sauce. That's when we discovered that Mom as out of dill. So
I put together a lemon-tarroagon sauce instead, with some lemon zest
and minced parsley for color. Pretty good sauce.
Put the salmon on a platter surrounded by lemon. Put it on the table.
When I got there to serve my plate, I noticed that the outside 1/4 inch
or so was pale pink and flaky like a nice poached salmon is. Underneath
that, the flesh was soft and bright pink - like sushi. Tasted
undercvooked, almost raw, texture was that of almost raw fish as well.
The debate began. I refused to eat it, becuase I don't trust
uindercooked food. My sister said that if salmon was good enough to eat
as sushi, it would be fine. True, but then again, the freshness of
sushi is usually a factor, and Mom had picked up the poached salmon on
the morning of December 24 to serve for dinner at 7 PM on Dec 25. Not
exactly the freshness standard I would accept as safe.
One of our guests said he loved sushi and this was the new way to cook
salmon. He stated that restaurants all over were serving their salmon
soft on the inside, it's a trent. Again I look at the fact that serving
it like that would be PLANNED and factored into freshness choices.
Secondly, I think maybe he was mixing up salmon and tuna. I've had
plenty of seared tuna that's raw or nearly so inside and not thought
twice about it.
So do you think it was safe to eat? I refused and told Mom that she
should return it to the market, along with the bottle of sauce, and
demand a refund of her $50. Mom simply threw what was left away. My
sister got sick that night but swears it wasn't the fish. Haven't
talked to any of the guests
Would YOU have eaten it? Would you have made a big stink at the marlet?
Or was I overreacting? personally, I cooked from non until 6:30 PM
without stopping, so I was pretty upset to find out that the food we
had ordered prepared wasn't right - I coulda done it myself and had it
much better! What would you have done?
Every year, my mom cooks a nice piece of beef, and orders a cold
poached salmon with dill sauce. I do all the appetizers and sides, and
she and I split the work on making desserts.
So last year, she found out that the grocery would do a poached salmon
for less than half the price of the fish market. It was wonderful -
flaky and tender, with a lovely creamy dill sauce.
This year, not so good. My first upset was when I asked her for the
dill sauce to put in a nice bowl for the buffet table. She hands me a
bottle of McCormicks Lemon Dill Marinade. I asked, what the heck is
this? She said that the guy at the store told her its the same thing
they gave us last year, but last year they poured some from the bottles
into a smaller tub and this year they were giving us a whole bottle,
lucky us. Apparently he thought my mom was either a) stupid or b)
overly harrassed byu the holiday shopping already, and he was right.
She took the bottle of marinade. Last year we had a nice thick white
sauce flecked with dill, which appeared to be a sour cream based sauce
like I would make at home. The bottle we got this year was an icky
yellow color, runny like a marinade, and specifically said on the back
that it was for marinading fish or chicken. NOT a sauce for the cooked
salmon. So I grabbed the sour cream and a few lemons, determined to
make a new sauce. That's when we discovered that Mom as out of dill. So
I put together a lemon-tarroagon sauce instead, with some lemon zest
and minced parsley for color. Pretty good sauce.
Put the salmon on a platter surrounded by lemon. Put it on the table.
When I got there to serve my plate, I noticed that the outside 1/4 inch
or so was pale pink and flaky like a nice poached salmon is. Underneath
that, the flesh was soft and bright pink - like sushi. Tasted
undercvooked, almost raw, texture was that of almost raw fish as well.
The debate began. I refused to eat it, becuase I don't trust
uindercooked food. My sister said that if salmon was good enough to eat
as sushi, it would be fine. True, but then again, the freshness of
sushi is usually a factor, and Mom had picked up the poached salmon on
the morning of December 24 to serve for dinner at 7 PM on Dec 25. Not
exactly the freshness standard I would accept as safe.
One of our guests said he loved sushi and this was the new way to cook
salmon. He stated that restaurants all over were serving their salmon
soft on the inside, it's a trent. Again I look at the fact that serving
it like that would be PLANNED and factored into freshness choices.
Secondly, I think maybe he was mixing up salmon and tuna. I've had
plenty of seared tuna that's raw or nearly so inside and not thought
twice about it.
So do you think it was safe to eat? I refused and told Mom that she
should return it to the market, along with the bottle of sauce, and
demand a refund of her $50. Mom simply threw what was left away. My
sister got sick that night but swears it wasn't the fish. Haven't
talked to any of the guests
Would YOU have eaten it? Would you have made a big stink at the marlet?
Or was I overreacting? personally, I cooked from non until 6:30 PM
without stopping, so I was pretty upset to find out that the food we
had ordered prepared wasn't right - I coulda done it myself and had it
much better! What would you have done?
