Hare butchering.

It is a total myth that all hares are witches. In fact, only a small proportion are. But you need to be careful. Any hare might be someone you know.
 
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Treat as a very big rabbit. We have now got more hares than rabbits, rarely shoot one but will do so to order.

D
 
Treat as a very big rabbit. We have now got more hares than rabbits, rarely shoot one but will do so to order.

D
Pretty much the same round here numbers wise. Local clusters of rabbits but they fluctuate a lot.
Hares on the other hand are doing well, I have to watch for signs of poaching (they get nervous in the lamp). But otherwise they are doing well. The landowners tolerate what bit of damage (hedges aside) they cause so there’s no pressure to cull them.
There’s a local shoot where I went in my mates place a few years ago. The rules if you want to take a Hare home you can shoot them. I didn’t shoot one nor did most of the guns. I did take two home though as the gun failed to claim them something he had form for apparently. Shame as they are good eating my Father never passes on the offer of a Hare.
 
Treat as a big rabbit or a small deer. I gut them as soon as possible.

Cooking - treat them as you would a young Roe Deer. Hare is a strong dark meat, rather white like a rabbit.

I pan fry medallions of loin - same as you would roe medallions. Eaten as a starter - or a light meal to keep you going for the main course of.

For the shoulders and haunches braise in a good vegitable stock with some bacon lardons, half way through cooking add in a good red wine and wild mushrooms - even dried work well. Gently cook till meat is about to fall off the bone. Reduce the cooking liquid by half, you can add a bit of brandy / sherry and or cream if that's to your taste. Put the meat the back in the pan and serve them to your self with a good red wine. Your guests / family can get the joy of watching you eat the hare, and then have have joy eating mashed potatoe with the left over sauces and the pickings off the bones. If you are really generous you can roast a phaesant for them, but that is probably overdoing things a bit.

And for desert - a snipe on toast is about perfect.
 
Could not agree more. At weekend discovered in deep freeze what I thought was a pack of pheasants legs. Turned out to be legs and saddle of a hare. Suffering considerable freezer burn which I trimmed off. Sauteed onion and garlic, browned off hare added chopped carrot and stick of celery, beef stock and about 2 glass of red wine, juice of an old lemon, boquet garni and a big bay leaf. Found in fidge remains of port and redcurant jelly so that went in. Also found some old dried peas so sprinkled thoose in. Bring to boil and whole cast iron caserolle went on log burner to simmer. Left it on log burner over night (burner had burnt out). Re heated next day. Served with creamed mash potatoe (butter, aromatt and extra thick cream) and it was excellent. Remains now in plastic containers in deep freeze.

D
 
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.

 
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.

Thumbs up from me for this one with a plump brown hare.

As for blue hare, I have only one tried and tested approach. Clean and skin fresh. Rub well with olive oil, salt and pepper the skin, wrap in prosciutto or bacon. Open a decent bottle of red. Take a double layer of foil, wrap the prepared hare tightly and seal the edges. Pour a large glass of red wine, down that, drop the hare in the bin and phone for a curry.
 
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!
 
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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!
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.

An old family friend preferred to substitute the blood with a goodly (equal!) measure of port when called for in the making jugged hare, which I found to be no disadvantage, in fact quite the contrary!
 
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