  Recent pump-probe experiments on underdoped cuprates and similar systems
suggest the existence of a transient superconducting state above
$\mathrm{T}_c$. This poses the question how to reliably identify the emergence
of long-range order, in particular superconductivity, out-of-equilibrium. We
investigate this point by studying a quantum quench in an extended Hubbard
model and by computing various observables, which are used to identify
(quasi-)long-range order in equilibrium. Our findings imply that, in contrast
to current experimental studies, it does not suffice to study the time
evolution of the optical conductivity to identify superconductivity. In turn,
we suggest to utilize time-resolved ARPES experiments to probe for the
formation of a condensate in the two-particle channel.
