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African Hen
(Gallina di Faraone) This fowl, that resembles the partridge, should not be too fresh, like all game.
The best way to cook the African hen is roasted at the spit. Put in the inside a ball of butter dipped in salt and wrap it in a piece of paper greased with butter and sprinkled with salt. This paper must be removed when the fowl is nearly cooked, and then the cooking is completed greasing with more butter and adding more salt.
This is guinea fowl, roasted plainly and basted with butter. The whole technique rests on the buttered paper, which shields the lean breast until the last stretch of cooking and then comes off so the skin can colour.
- What the bird isGallina di Faraone is guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), sold as faraona in Italy and increasingly available from game dealers and better butchers. A dressed bird runs 2 1/2 to 3 lb and serves three, or two generously.
- "Should not be too fresh"This refers to the old practice of hanging game birds undrawn for several days to deepen the flavour. Guinea fowl bought today is chilled, drawn and ready to cook; treat it as poultry, keep it refrigerated, and do not attempt to age it at room temperature.
- Spit to ovenIf you have a rotisserie, use it. Otherwise roast at 400F on a rack, breast up, allowing roughly 20 minutes per pound plus 15 minutes as an outside guide and checking earlier, since a bird this lean can be ready sooner; turn the pan once so the heat evens out the way a turning spit would.
- The paperButtered parchment does exactly what the original intends: baking parchment cut large enough to cover breast and legs, well buttered and salted, then removed for the final 15 to 20 minutes so the skin browns. Foil steams rather than shields and gives paler skin.
- QuantitiesNo amounts are given. About 2 oz of butter worked with a good pinch of salt goes inside the cavity, and another 2 oz melted for the paper and the final bastings.
- Guinea fowl runs dryIt is leaner than chicken, and the breast dries well before the thighs are done. Barding the breast with a slice or two of pancetta under the paper is a common Italian precaution, and lifting the bird out at the right moment matters more than any basting.
- DonenessCook to 165F at the thickest part of the thigh, clear of the bone. The original leaves this to the eye; the thermometer is the only reliable way to catch a lean bird before it goes stringy.
- Resting and servingRest 10 to 15 minutes under loose foil before carving. Deglaze the roasting pan with a splash of dry white wine and pour the buttery juices over the carved bird.
Guinea fowl is a West African bird, domesticated in antiquity and known to the Romans as gallina africana or meleagris; the Italian name faraona, pharaoh's hen, is traditionally explained as a memory of a North African route by which it reached the Mediterranean, and the English "guinea" fowl of the later Atlantic trade. Italian cooking has long treated it as half poultry and half game, which is why the instruction here is borrowed from game practice: the bird should not be too fresh. Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919) was assembled for American readers largely out of the Italian domestic tradition codified by Pellegrino Artusi, and the terse, assume-a-spit style here is characteristic of that source: the cook is told the one thing that governs the dish, the buttered paper, and trusted with the rest.