Pretty much the same round here numbers wise. Local clusters of rabbits but they fluctuate a lot.Treat as a very big rabbit. We have now got more hares than rabbits, rarely shoot one but will do so to order.
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Used to enjoy the odd blue hare caught by my goshawk, really tender saddle when flash fried.Don't like brown hare to strong for me ,don't mind a Blue hare in a casserole though.
I'm the other way Boggie, brown hare is ok, blue hare cook as capercaillie, bury in a cake tin and forget where it was.Don't like brown hare to strong for me ,don't mind a Blue hare in a casserole though.
Thumbs up from me for this one with a plump brown hare.I love hare. I often see them when stalking and no one on those grounds seem to have any interest in them as a quarry. They seem to be a problem because they attract people with lurchers. But no-one else seems interested in shooting or eating them.
Here is my kiddy approved recipe. If the kids lick the dish clean, it can't be bad. I think people just don't tend to cook it well.
Lepre in Umido - Italian hare stew recipe
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! Last Sunday, on the contrived occasion of a family New Year's lunch, I attempted an Italian recipe for hare that I'd found, translated and adapted to my tastes, abilities and available ingredients. I think hare is hugely underrated as a game species and...www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk
The meat isn't really strong, but the blood will certainly give it a strong taste. We once fed a party of near sixty with brown hare saddle cooked rare like you would medallions of venison, and so many folk who had eaten hare before were greatly surprised at how much milder the flavour was when cooked in this way. Mountain hare is even milder, for sure.I love eating hares and on the family farm in Hampshire we always buck the national trend; if there are none elsewhere we have lots and when we have few then other folk are saying they have more.
Lots of good advice above; abide by it.
Do hang it guts in; and then when you skin it try to retain as much of the blood as possible to include in the stew. Joint as a rabbit. As said above it is strong meat and my late Mother always used to bake Force Meat at the same time as casseroling the hare. Force meat was a belly-filler essentially made of breadcrumbs and suet, flour and I think bound with an egg but with lots (I mean large piles of ) thyme and sage, plus onions I think. The baked (until starting to brown on top) Force Meat also, when plated, helped soak up some of the very rich gravy from the casserole. Alternatively herby dumplings do the same sort of job but are moister than the Force Meat. I know that besides the "holy trinity" of onion, carrot and celery Mother also used more peppercorns than usual in her jugged hare and I like some ground nutmeg also (as with venison). Enjoy!