Great Jackrabbit Roundup

[Ernie of Maine (imported)]

Moi,

The meat is greasy, kind of like lamb only white meat.

But the fur is soft.

Jackrabbits are not rabbits. Jackrabbits are hares. Golden Nature Guide. For though who wough like to know. Ernie.

[moi621 (imported)]

Thank You for that lesson. Further study reveals

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Hare_vs_Rabbit

Hares are generally larger and faster than rabbits.

Hares have longer ears and larger feet than rabbits.

Hares have black markings on their fur.

Rabbits are altricial i.e. they having young that are born blind and hairless. In contrast, hares are generally born with hair and are able to see (precocial). Young hares are therefore able to fend for themselves very quickly after birth.

Rabbit kittens soon after birth.

Rabbit kittens soon after birth.

A young hare is called a leveret and a young rabbit is called a kitten, kit, or, least correct but very commonly, a bunny.

Hares have very long and strong hind legs, more so than rabbits.

Rabbits and hares both molt and then grow new hair. This happens in both the spring and in the fall. Rabbits' brown summer fur is replaced with fur that is more grey. Hares, especially those living in cold, snowy regions, turn white in the winter.

Hunters say that hare has a much stronger, gamier flavor than rabbit (which actually does taste like a milder version of chicken).

Both rabbits and hares have short tails.

AND FURTHERMORE

Hares have not been domesticated, while rabbits are often kept as house pets.

All rabbits (except the cottontail rabbit) live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares live in simple nests above the ground (as does the cottontail rabbit). Rabbits also have their litters underground. Hares rely on running rather than burrowing for protection.

Rabbits are very social animals; they live in colonies. Male rabbits even fight within a group to become the dominant male. The dominant male rabbit then mates with most of the females in the area. In opposite, hares live most of the time by themselves. They come together in pairs for mating only. There is almost no fighting among hares - they just pair off.

Rabbits prefer soft stems, grass or vegetables; hares eat more hard food: bark and rind, buds, small twigs and shoots.

NOT TO TRIVIALIZE

The Jackrabbit is actually a hare.

Rabbit's eyes are positioned on the sides, so they can cover larger areas. Rabbits can see behind them without turning their heads.

A male rabbit is called a buck, a female - a doe, babies - kittens.

Rabbit's eyes remain black when reflecting a bright light. In comparison human eyes appear red, cats and dogs - green, and deer eyes turn orange).

Enjoy.

I did.

Moi

Biologist at :hearthrob

[transward (imported)]

Jackrabbits are not rabbits. Jackrabbits are hares. Golden Nature Guide. For though who wough like to know. Ernie.

I am sure you are correct, but, like most people, I have no clue to the difference. My grandfather shot jackrabbits on his farm, and I'm sure my grandmother cooked them, probably as stew, but I don't remember the taste. I love to eat rabbit, haven't eaten hare since very small.

Transward

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

My home in Arizona is plagued with BOTH "jackrabbits" that are actually HARES, and the "cottontails" that are in fact rabbits. I have eaten many cottontail rabbits, but never ever tried to eat a jackrabbit. Seems that everyone I ever spoke with about it said that jackrabbits are not edible, meat so tough and no good flavor. Still, I really wonder.... I am absolutely certain that in my pressure cooker I can make the harshest and most intolerably tough meat tender, my pressure cooker can liquefy bone if need be so I know I could sure as hell tenderize jackrabbit meat. And good God do I ever have a bunch of jackrabbits infesting my property.

Anyone here care to offer up cooking tips and trade ideas on recipes? I have a few extremely good recipes, the "best damn pinto beans you have ever tasted," maybe a few others, does anyone here KNOW for sure (from REAL first hand experience eating jackrabbit) any good cooking tips or ideas for wild jackrabbit?

[Riverwind (imported)]

Me too, my dad had them when I was little, goats too, and chickens and ducks. I remember him butchering 16 at a time, I can see him doing it to this day.

Yes rabbit does taste like chicken.

River

[kristoff]

Me too, my dad had them when I was little, goats too, and chickens and ducks. I remember him butchering 16 at a time, I can see him doing it to this day.

Yes rabbit does taste like chicken.

River

Nah, chicken tastes like rabbit...

[Ernie of Maine (imported)]

Nah, chicken tastes like rabbit...

Kristoff it all depens on how good the cook is. Ernie:)

[transward (imported)]

In the 70's I lived in a group house near Colorado College. In the spirit of the Whole Earth Catalog, back to the Earth thing, we decided to raise rabbits for food. The guys built a beautiful hutch. (One roommate later became a national authority on timber-framed houses on PBS's This Old House.) and a breeding pair was ordered. They did their thing, and the first litter arrived and was of course named. There was much joking about killing and eating Peter Rabbit and the Easter Bunny etc. Eventually time came to dispatch the critters, and suddenly all the big strong men became squeamish. Eventually we consulted our landlords wife. They were a much loved local black couple who received some national publicity during the Civil Rights movement a decade earlier, for their rags to riches story from sharecroppers kids in the deep South, to coming to Colorado Springs after the war and, despite being legally blind, the beloved trainer for the CC football team,. They owned a number of large rooming houses around the college which they rented to students, all of whom were treated like their own kids. We dispatched Carolyn, the most intrepid girl on the rabbit project up to Rosy's house. Carolyn, Rosy's wife, and the rabbits went down to the basement, and after a period the wife came up with the rabbits butchered and wrapped, and a very green Carolyn, who seemed in shock for several days. A day or so later I cooked up a big Hasenpfeffer (rabbit stew) which I thought was delicious. For some reason no one seemed to be very hungry (though oddly they went out for burgers not much later.) And the leftovers went bad in the refer and got thrown out and the rest of the rabbits never got cooked. After that no one mentioned the rabbit project again and we finally sold the hutch.

My home in Arizona is plagued with BOTH "jackrabbits" that are actually HARES, and the "cottontails" that are in fact rabbits. I have eaten many cottontail rabbits, but never ever tried to eat a jackrabbit. Seems that everyone I ever spoke with about it said that jackrabbits are not edible, meat so tough and no good flavor. Still, I really wonder.... I am absolutely certain that in my pressure cooker I can make the harshest and most intolerably tough meat tender, my pressure cooker can liquefy bone if need be so I know I could sure as hell tenderize jackrabbit meat. And good God do I ever have a bunch of jackrabbits infesting my property.

Anyone here care to offer up cooking tips and trade ideas on recipes? I have a few extremely good recipes, the "best damn pinto beans you have ever tasted," maybe a few others, does anyone here KNOW for sure (from REAL first hand experience eating jackrabbit) any good cooking tips or ideas for wild jackrabbit?

No firsthand experience, but try Googling "eating jackrabbits;"There are several threads . I'd post some links, but then I'd have to cut and past all the text to this post. In general, on cooking gamy meats, remove as much fat as you can, (carries most of the gamy flavor), soak in a vinegar solution, sometimes milk or buttermilk, if you eat pork, add a fatty pork product; bacon, salt pork, panchetta or sausage meat. Cook with an acid; tomatoes, vinegar, lime juice, or pomegranate molasses. Cook in slow or pressure cooker.

From the threads consensus is that jack rabbits, like oysters, are best in cold months with an R in them, and recommend skinning and butchering with gloves on to avoid parasites, and in your neck of the woods, Bubonic Plague. (particularly avoid fleas)

Transward

[considering (imported)]

And, of course, there's the gassing of prairie dogs in Western Kansas. On the more humane side, there's a machine that simply sucks them out of their burrows....and the better ones are sold as pets in Japan. They are a native species but what they can destroy was not native to Kansas. Has anyone mentioned gophers? A school in central Kansas had to temporarily close the play yard when several children sustained ankle injuries when they stepped in gopher holes. Of course, many school districts-in Kansas-have closed all their playgrounds. The continuing drought has caused the ground to split so widely and deeply that, as with the gopher holes, there was a serious chance of injury caused by falling or tripping over the cracks.

And, in Southern Kansas, yesterday I heard the sound of branches breaking from trees caused by the weight of the ice. I'm assuming that the brave tulip or two that I'd seen a couple of days ago are now dead, probably never to bloom again.