No. 1956

Guinea Fowls Larded and Decorated with Their Own Feathes—Roasted

Pintades Piquees Roties Garnies de Leur Plumage

Guinea fowls are frequently disguised with their own or with pheasants' feathers, for their resemblance is almost similar. Select young guinea fowls, dress and truss them as if intended for roasting (No. 179); plunge the breasts in boiling water to stiffen the skin and lard them with very fine shreds of larding pork (No. 3, Fig. 52); wrap them up in several sheets of buttered paper, then roast them either on the spit or in the oven; when they are three-quarters done, unwrap and brown a fine color; salt and dress on croutons of bread fried in butter, and decorate with either their own feathers; serve a separate sauce-boat of clear gravy (No. 404).

← No. 1955 Guinea Fowl Chicken No. 1957 Guinea Fowls Fillets a la Gaillardet →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward larded roast bird from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, complicated only by the Victorian habit of sending it to the table wearing its own plumage. The cooking itself is simple; the cross-references are where the work hides.

The hinge: the paperGuinea fowl is markedly leaner and drier than chicken, which is why the breasts are larded and the whole bird wrapped in buttered paper for most of the roast. Skipping the wrapping gives you a dry breast; parchment brushed with butter, or a foil tent removed for the last quarter, does the same job.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives none. A 2-2.5 lb guinea fowl roasts well at 400F, wrapped, then uncovered for the final 15 minutes to colour. Cook to 165F at the thickest part of the thigh.
Larding porkThe cross-referenced No. 3, with its figure, covers his larding method; check it in the original for the cut and the needlework. Fatback from a butcher is the correct substitute; bacon is smoked and cured and will read as a different dish. Thin sheets of fatback tied over the breast (barding) achieve most of the effect with none of the needlework.
Plunging the breastThe brief dip in boiling water firms the skin so the larding needle does not tear it. It is a technique, not a cooking step, and takes seconds.
TrussingNo. 179 is his standard preparation for trussing poultry for roasting; consult it for the exact method. Any modern trussing method serves.
The gravyNo. 404 is his clear gravy, served unthickened in a separate sauce-boat; the composition is given there. Reduced roasting-pan juices deglazed with stock and strained will stand in.
The feathersRanhofer says only to decorate the dressed birds with their own (or pheasants') feathers and gives no method. However you arrange them, treat them as tableware rather than garnish: raw plumage carries whatever the live bird carried, so keep it off surfaces that touch the meat and wash hands after handling.
YieldA guinea fowl runs 2-2.5 lb dressed and serves two, perhaps three with substantial sides. Ranhofer's service assumes several birds on one platter.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades at Delmonico's in New York, and the book records the full apparatus of Franco-American restaurant cookery at its most elaborate. The guinea fowl, pintade, is an African bird domesticated in antiquity and long familiar in French cooking; Ranhofer groups it with chicken rather than with game. The plumage dressing belongs to a wider service tradition in which pheasants, peacocks and swans were reassembled in their feathers for the table, a practice usually traced back to medieval banqueting. Ranhofer's frank note that guinea fowl were "frequently disguised" with pheasant feathers is a small window onto how such spectacle actually worked: the cheaper bird under the finer plumage.