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Guinea-Fowl, to Roast
When the guinea-fowl is larded, it should be trussed like a pheasant, but it may also be trussed like a young turkey, with the head left on. Fill it with a good forcemeat, put it down to a clear fire, and baste it constantly, or the flesh will be dry. A few minutes before it is taken up, dredge a little flour over, and froth it nicely. Send brown gravy and bread-sauce to table with the bird. Time, an hour, or a little more. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A late-Victorian spit-roasting instruction that assumes a bird with fat added to it and a cook standing by. The whole method is built around one problem: guinea-fowl is lean and dries out.
- The hinge: fat and bastingGuinea-fowl carries almost no subcutaneous fat, which is why the original insists on larding and constant basting. Instead of threading strips of pork fat through the flesh, drape the breast with streaky bacon or a sheet of caul fat, or spread softened butter under the skin, and remove the covering for the last 15 minutes to colour the skin.
- Oven instead of open fire"Put it down to a clear fire" means a bright, flameless bed of coals in front of which the bird turned on a spit. In an oven, start at 425F for 15 minutes, then drop to 350F for the remainder.
- Time and donenessThe hour given implies a fairly large bird, perhaps around 3 lb; guinea-fowl sold today often run 2 to 2 1/2 lb and will be done in 45 to 55 minutes. Go by temperature: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh. Rest it 10 to 15 minutes before carving.
- The forcemeatA Victorian forcemeat is breadcrumbs, suet or butter, herbs, and often chopped bacon or liver bound with egg. Stuffing slows the heat reaching the cavity, so check that the centre of the forcemeat also reaches 165F, or bake it separately in a dish and cook the bird empty for a juicier result.
- "Froth it nicely"Dredging flour over the hot basted bird and returning it briefly to the heat raises a thin blistered crust. A light dusting of flour with a final butter baste at high heat does the same thing in a modern oven; more than a teaspoon or so will taste pasty.
- Head left onTrussing "like a young turkey, with the head left on" is usually explained as a way of identifying the bird, though this is tradition rather than documented fact. Birds now come oven-ready; truss simply by tying the legs and pinning the wings to the body.
- The accompanimentsBrown gravy here means a meat-stock gravy, often thickened with browned flour, and bread sauce is milk infused with onion and clove, thickened with breadcrumbs and finished with butter. Both are sent to table in separate boats.
- YieldFour to five is optimistic for a 2 1/2 lb bird by modern portions; count on three, or two birds for a table of five.
Guinea-fowl are native to Africa and were kept in Europe from the sixteenth century onward, valued as a semi-wild yard bird whose dark, close-grained flesh sat somewhere between chicken and pheasant. That in-between quality explains the instructions here: the book tells the cook to truss it like a pheasant when it is larded, but allows trussing like a young turkey with the head left on, because the bird belonged to no single category in the Victorian kitchen and was handled by analogy. The pairing with brown gravy and bread sauce is straight from the British game-bird repertoire, where bread sauce was the standard partner to roast pheasant, partridge and grouse.