We eat quite a lot of hares at my house. 78 of them last winter, to be exact. Accordingly, we have tried many, many recipes. Also, one of my best friends is French (not French Canadian, French) and he makes some really interesting "old world" recipes with the hares, such as "country pate", which is closer to what I would call "cold meat loaf" than what I think of "pate". Very chunky, with a bunch of pork fat in the mix and a bone-broth jelly on top. It is delicious!
According to available data, you should be able to find snowshoe hares in your neck of the woods.
According to a quick Goggle, jackrabbit = hare ....
as opposed to cottontail = rabbit
But here you have to shoot/trap them yourself, it is illegal for hunters to sell game. It will remain on the bucket of blood list.
(not French Canadian, French)
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But here you have to shoot/trap them yourself, it is illegal for hunters to sell game. It will remain on the bucket of blood list.
Same rules here, which is why I shoot them myself. Field to table. It is as rewarding as gardening. Perhaps more so.
Nothing quite like spending a winter weekend day in the middle of nowhere with snowshoes and a .22. Exercise, fresh air, silence, beauty and a bag full of meat.
Big difference. Persecuted by English Canadians and the French. Condolences go out to our eastern neighbours.(not French Canadian, French)
According to Goggle, yes......
But also jackrabbit is closer to the European hare in Scott's mention.
When I was a kid we would shoot both jackrabbits and cottontails.
The cottontails were close to squirrel (as mentioned before).
We would leave the jackrabbits for the cayotes......
Snowshoe hares are very good in soups, very, very good in stews, impressive in braises, and excellent in pies... with mushrooms!
They are quite like dark meat turkey, but with "character".
And they are extremely challenging to hunt with a single-projectile, until you figure them out.
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When I was a kid we had hare almost every week.
A soup thickened with the hares blood on Saturdays and the roasted hare on Sunday.
This was because my dad was a driving instructor. Hares (and other critters) will not run into the dark if caught in the headlights. He used to knock them out with the car and finish them off by clubbing them on the head.
It would then hang in the cellar for a few days to mature before I watched my mum skinning it. Maturing them mellows the flavour a fair bit.
Happy days and sadly it's now been many years since I even saw a hare in wild!
A soup thickened with the hares blood on Saturdays and the roasted hare on Sunday.
This was because my dad was a driving instructor. Hares (and other critters) will not run into the dark if caught in the headlights. He used to knock them out with the car and finish them off by clubbing them on the head.
It would then hang in the cellar for a few days to mature before I watched my mum skinning it. Maturing them mellows the flavour a fair bit.
Happy days and sadly it's now been many years since I even saw a hare in wild!
Pardon my ignorance but doesn't the aging help to break down the flesh?
We have a shipload of feral rabbits in pockets all over our city that could be used as a source of protein. They do cause a lot of damage to vegetation. Instead, we cull them. Go figure.
Hasenpfeffer is what my mum called the Saturday dish.
She made it using the head, offal and other cut offs. The blood is essential for a proper Hasenpfeffer, without it it's just stew.
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Not really a fan of stews as such but I do understand cooking with blood and other goodie bits and how only a few changes can make all the difference.
I did have one rabbit stew at the house of a restaurant owner that was so good, I had to have seconds. The umami factor was so high, I would not attempt duplicating it.
I did have one rabbit stew at the house of a restaurant owner that was so good, I had to have seconds. The umami factor was so high, I would not attempt duplicating it.
My very first trip to Brussels of many the Alcatel guys took us to a local tavern for rabbit stew and a real tall glass of Belgian brew. This is the way to do business. The stew was based on gueuze lambic.
EDIT - This would have been lapin as opposed to lievre, the french differentiation of rabbit and hare.
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Cal - hereabouts we also have an issue with feral rabbits - and deer for that matter- and from time to time the question is raised in letters to the editor, etc about "harvesting". While they could probably qualify as free range /organic , there's always the concern about disease / parasites and lack of inspection.
Of course, only a little research into the factory methods employed by the meat/dairy and poultry industries and the efficacy of inspection agencies might lead one to gamble on feral game after all.
, there's always the concern about disease / parasites and lack of inspection.Of course, only a little research into the factory methods employed by the meat/dairy and poultry industries and the efficacy of inspection agencies might lead one to gamble on feral game after all.
