How does guinea taste?

[Trish1974]

I am thinking about cooking a guinea for Thanksgiving this year. Last year I made quail... which everybody loved except for me, but that's okay, I still managed to pack on weight that holiday. I've not had guinea before, but read it tastes like a cross between chicken and pheasant. I have never had pheasant, but read it is really gamey, so I have avoided it. For those of you that have eaten guinea, can you describe its taste, and do you have any special recommendations for preparing it? I want to roast it stuffed - like a traditional turkey. Thank you.

 

[R2elk]

I am thinking about cooking a guinea for Thanksgiving this year. Last year I made quail... which everybody loved except for me, but that's okay, I still managed to pack on weight that holiday. I've not had guinea before, but read it tastes like a cross between chicken and pheasant. I have never had pheasant, but read it is really gamey, so I have avoided it. For those of you that have eaten guinea, can you describe its taste, and do you have any special recommendations for preparing it? I want to roast it stuffed - like a traditional turkey. Thank you.

Properly processed and prepared guineas are delicious. To me they taste like chicken except with much more flavor.

In my opinion, a lot of people misuse the term gamy. Meat that tastes gamy is because of how it was treated after being killed. If you kill a chicken by shooting it with a shotgun and carry it around all day before dressing it out, it will be gamy.

Pheasants that are killed the same way most people do with chickens and processed and cooled quickly are not gamy and are delicious.

My father told me to never dispatch a guinea by chopping its head off. He said it would cause the meat to turn black and blue. His method was to shoot the guinea in the head with a .22. Personal experience has taught me that guineas do bruise very easily. Bruised meat does not taste great.

I stuff and roast a guinea just the same as I would do for a chicken.

 

[FortCluck]

Properly processed and prepared guineas are delicious. To me they taste like chicken except with much more flavor.

In my opinion, a lot of people misuse the term gamy. Meat that tastes gamy is because of how it was treated after being killed. If you kill a chicken by shooting it with a shotgun and carry it around all day before dressing it out, it will be gamy.

Pheasants that are killed the same way most people do with chickens and processed and cooled quickly are not gamy and are delicious.

My father told me to never dispatch a guinea by chopping its head off. He said it would cause the meat to turn black and blue. His method was to shoot the guinea in the head with a .22. Personal experience has taught me that guineas do bruise very easily. Bruised meat does not taste great.

I stuff and roast a guinea just the same as I would do for a chicken.

Do you use a plucker to remove feathers or do you do it by hand?

 

[R2elk]

Do you use a plucker to remove feathers or do you do it by hand?

I do not have a plucker so yes, by hand. I scald with 160°F water and they pluck easily. There is only one of me so I only process one at a time when I do any. I prefer fresh over frozen so any "chosen" dinner guests are processed 3 days before the scheduled meal.

 

[FortCluck]

I do not have a plucker so yes, by hand. I scald with 160°F water and they pluck easily. There is only one of me so I only process one at a time when I do any. I prefer fresh over frozen so any "chosen" dinner guests are processed 3 days before the scheduled meal.

Think a guinea could make it through a plucker without getting damaged?

 

[R2elk]

Think a guinea could make it through a plucker without getting damaged?

There is only one way to find out. I suspect that any possible bruising will happen before it reaches the state it is in for the plucker. Most poultry are already in a state of rigor mortis by the time they reach the plucker.