Is it just me or do jackrabbits taste like boiled bark and pine needles?

[allan f]

Man I just tried a jackrabbit in a stew and let me tell you it was awful!  I have tried them before and didn't like them then. From what I hear cottontails are really nice but their cousins the hares are not great table fare.  Having said that i like getting them so if someone knows a way to cook them that makes them palatable I would love to know. I don't like shooting it if I am not going to eat it.

Allan

[vtmtnman]

I find that odd.The bunch we got when I was in the cali desert were as good as any cottontail here.We just boiled up some water and took the meat off the bones,then started with a stock in a pot,tossed in the meat,taters,onions,carrots,whatever was handy for seasoning,and a lil bread to go with afterwards.

[vermonster13]

Depends on what they're feeding on. I prefer cottontails for table fare myself.

[wahoo]

this is late but I get em and cook em in a crock pot.I use cranberries and a bottle of french dressing. Cook slow and long serve over pasta or rice. Very good.

[Thumper Dunker]

I just fry them like chicken. BBq good also.A bit more gamy than cotton tails

[Gooserbat]

I was on a pronghorn hunt in Wyoming last year and my nephew killed one and "chunked" the meat off the bone and I made fajitas with it.  Then we killed  a few more and brought home our new found fajita meat.

[Jim's Mom]

I shot a good sized white tailed jack in the high country near Bishop CA a few years ago. The meat was dark and tasted musty. I didn't care for it at all. Cotton tails are much better. Jim

[Tsalagi]

I'm the "Jackrabbit King" in this area. I think I'm the only guy who eats them. I also think I'm the only guy who eats the liver, heart, kidneys, and lungs as well as the meat.

In the Medieval Period, hare (a jackrabbit is a hare) was a meat reserved for nobility. It was one of the "5 Noble Animals" that only nobles could hunt. The secret is to look to the Medieval Period for your recipes. You need to make "Jugged Hare", that is, cook it in a clay vessel like your Romertopf clay pot. The night before, you marinade it in a hearty red wine or a dark ale like Guinness. And then you cook it in that wine or ale, see. But also, before popping it into the oven to slow cook at about 250 degrees for at least 4 hours, you add thre slices of cooked, thick-sliced bacon over it. And you add your vegetables like carrots and such. This is how they did it in the Medieval Period. The secret is marinading in an alcoholic drink and then slow cooking in a covered clay pot.

I like them every which way. Barbequed is great. Fried is great. But I've found that Jugged Hare is the crowd-pleaser.

[Brian Krebs]

Tsalagi : that recipe would make bark and pine needles taste good !

Rabbits have young that are born without hair. Hares are born with hair. Rabbits are blind and nurse for a while before they can be autonomous - while hares are born eyes open and ready to romp.

Snowshoe rabbits are rabbits and have white meat. Cottontails have white meat too.
Both are really good to eat and easy to fix- from tossing them on the barbecue with your favorite sauce; or by rolling in a tempura mix; and frying them.

Cottontails look the same all year long; while snowshoes get darker in the summer months.

I have been in areas where there are jackrabbits ( which are hares) and snowshoe rabbits - and locals call them both 'jackrabbits'.

If the rabbit meat is white- it will taste right.

Now hares - well - I think the worst day I had in the military was when they fed us jackrabbit for dinner. I don't know who made the money off that; but nobody liked it.

[Tsalagi]

Brian, LOL, the worst food I remember from the army was the dehydrated beef or pork patty from the first-gen MREs. When we moved here to Flagstaff, Arizona, we noticed that Purina has a pet food plant here. On some days, you can smell the pet food being made and everyone almost gags. I thought to myself the first time I smelled it, "Now, where have I smelled that before??" Then it came to me half an hour later: Aha! The dehydrated beef and pork patties from MREs!

[amazonjim]

Not sure with the JR but if you clean the rabbits of their intestines as soon as possilbe, because of the thin intestines in cotton tails it will bleed through to the meat.

[Tsalagi]

I find the sooner cleaned, the better. Of course, anyone eating factory/feedlot/industrial chicken or ground beef is getting plenty of dookie in their meat.

[elkshooter]

Who eats jackrabbits?  Yuck!

[greenhed]

Got a few jacks this year, and they tasted all right.  A little more gamey than cottontails, but good nonetheless.

[Tsalagi]

"Who eats jackrabbits? Yuck!"

I do. But, then, I know how to cook 'em!   :D  

Anyone needs a recipe, PM me. Seriously, these animals are good eating.

[hayslope]

I would have thought the pine needle taste would have been a positive!

Last one I ate WAS my last.............

[kill shot]

i found with snowshoe hares that we have in nothern michigan,clean as soon as possible and let them hang as you would a deer.a good recipe is as follows:place in a pressure cooker with about 1.5"of water.cook until the agitator hisses for 15 minutes. let cool and remove from pressure cooker.cut into pieces.(legs and back)roll in flour and fry until you like the looks of it.

[zip]

I shot and cooked a jackrabbit while on an elk hunt in colo. Ended up so tuff, you couldn't stick your fork in the gravy.

[Tsalagi]

It's all in the cooking. Jugged Hare recipes are the way to go.

[Lucas K]

Showshoes are hares just like jacks both can be good though Snowshoes lend themselves to more preperations. I like cottontail rabbit better than both.

Lucas