Hare casserole

Kathy-in-NZ said:

I've had two meaty legs of wild hare in the freezer for a while. I was
fascinated when I found them at a gourmet food store, but have been
unsure how to use them.

Tonight I'm taking a punt. After much research, I'm combining two
different recipes.

One has me marinating the meat in a combination of white wine, garlic,
lemon juice, pinch cayenne, 1Tbsp oil, salt and pepper for 3-6 hours.
This I've done. It goes on to cook the meat with the marinade, onions
and celery. This I haven't done.

Instead, I drained the meat of its marinade, patted it dry, tossed it
in seasoned flour and browned it, and two rashers of chopped bacon, in
a cast iron pan. Transferred meat to casserole dish. Caramelised
sliced onion in pan. Transferred to casserole. Added a bit of flour to
pan, cooked it out a little, added chicken stock, red wine, bay
leaves, a little bit of cloves (sounded odd, but I thought I'd try it)
and extra pepper.

It's in the oven, cooking slowly for 3 hours.

Don't know what it will taste like but it smells good. Unlike when I
cut up the meat. It was quite off putting, but from research, hare
should be soaked in a water/white vinegar mixture. I reckon the
marinade will do the same job.

Kathy in NZ

Thanks for the idea! There's a local butcher shop in montesanto that
has rabbit hanging in the window...I've wanted to try it and needed an
idea...

<runs to train>

--
"I'm thinking that if this dilemma grows any more horns, I'm going to
shoot it and put it up on the wall."

- Harry Dresden

ravenlynne said:

Kathy-in-NZ said:

I've had two meaty legs of wild hare in the freezer for a while. I was
fascinated when I found them at a gourmet food store, but have been
unsure how to use them.

Quoted message said:

Tonight I'm taking a punt. After much research, I'm combining two
different recipes.

Quoted message said:

One has me marinating the meat in a combination of white wine, garlic,
lemon juice, pinch cayenne, 1Tbsp oil, salt and pepper for 3-6 hours.
This I've done. It goes on to cook the meat with the marinade, onions
and celery. This I haven't done.

Quoted message said:

Instead, I drained the meat of its marinade, patted it dry, tossed it
in seasoned flour and browned it, and two rashers of chopped bacon, in
a cast iron pan. Transferred meat to casserole dish. Caramelised
sliced onion in pan. Transferred to casserole. Added a bit of flour to
pan, cooked it out a little, added chicken stock, red wine, bay
leaves, a little bit of cloves (sounded odd, but I thought I'd try it)
and extra pepper.

Quoted message said:

It's in the oven, cooking slowly for 3 hours.

Quoted message said:

Don't know what it will taste like but it smells good. Unlike when I
cut up the meat. It was quite off putting, but from research, hare
should be soaked in a water/white vinegar mixture. I reckon the
marinade will do the same job.

Quoted message said:

Kathy in NZ

Thanks for the idea! There's a local butcher shop in montesanto that
has rabbit hanging in the window...I've wanted to try it and needed an
idea...

<runs to train>

--
"I'm thinking that if this dilemma grows any more horns, I'm going to
shoot it and put it up on the wall."

- Harry Dresden- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Apparently hare and rabbit are two quite different meats. Rabbit is
classed as a white meat, whereas hare is red.

I suggest you look for a different recipe, though the one time I tried
rabbit (roasted) I didn't like the slightly bitter taste of it. Maybe
it too could benefit from marinating.

Kathy-in-NZ said:

Apparently hare and rabbit are two quite different meats. Rabbit is
classed as a white meat, whereas hare is red.

I suggest you look for a different recipe, though the one time I tried
rabbit (roasted) I didn't like the slightly bitter taste of it. Maybe
it too could benefit from marinating.

Rabbit is extremely lean and needs to be braised. I basically oil it,
brown it, and throw it in a pot with vegetables and some chicken
broth, black pepper, bay leaf, garlic, rosemary and thyme and bake it
at 325 for a 2.5 hours or so, with the lid on.

I sometimes make hassenpfeffer the way my German family used to by
flouring pieces, browning in bacon grease and then cooking in a big
deep skillet, adding the cooked bacon (about a half-pond), sauteed
onion and garlic, chicken broth, spices as above, some red wine, a
dash of vinegar and some honey or kayro syrup as sweetener. Leave the
top off and let the sauce reduce. It needs to simmer a good 2 hours
for the rabbit to be tender.

-L.

-L. said:

Kathy-in-NZ said:

Apparently hare and rabbit are two quite different meats. Rabbit is
classed as a white meat, whereas hare is red.

I suggest you look for a different recipe, though the one time I tried
rabbit (roasted) I didn't like the slightly bitter taste of it. Maybe
it too could benefit from marinating.

Rabbit is extremely lean and needs to be braised. I basically oil it,
brown it, and throw it in a pot with vegetables and some chicken
broth, black pepper, bay leaf, garlic, rosemary and thyme and bake it
at 325 for a 2.5 hours or so, with the lid on.

I sometimes make hassenpfeffer the way my German family used to by
flouring pieces, browning in bacon grease and then cooking in a big
deep skillet, adding the cooked bacon (about a half-pond), sauteed
onion and garlic, chicken broth, spices as above, some red wine, a
dash of vinegar and some honey or kayro syrup as sweetener. Leave the
top off and let the sauce reduce. It needs to simmer a good 2 hours
for the rabbit to be tender.

-L.

It really depends on the age of the rabbit. Most domestic rabbit (as
opposed to wild rabbit or hare) is butchered at a very young age.
Definitely not a tough meat at all. It fries up like chicken very
easily, in fact you can substitute almost any recipe for chicken to
rabbit. Or pheasant. If you can find a bit older rabbit or a really
large rabbit, then them make excellent braises and stews, especially
with lots of onions and prunes in a beer sauce. Dollop of sour cream on
top! Great meal, Or saute a rabbit with dried cherries and currant
jelly. It goes great with fruit, though we've had a fun, tasty time
using it in Mexican recipes and Chinese, too. But then again we used to
raise rabbits and had access to LOTS of rabbit meat.

Melondy

ravenlynne said:

Thanks for the idea! There's a local butcher shop in montesanto that
has rabbit hanging in the window...I've wanted to try it and needed an
idea...

Hare and rabbit are not even in the same universe. Hare is gamy and
dark. Its one distinctive - and unpleasant - characteristic is the
extreme dryness of the meat. Its taste is all of its own and is very
distinctive indeed. Not a few people dislike it, even if they like
other kinds of game. It is nothing like the relatively bland, but
otherwise very pleasant, somewhat chicken-like rabbit - there is no
resemblance at all. That said, it ought to be easy enough to find hare
in Italy, frozen if not fresh. It is particularly popular in Tuscany,
where they make the wonderful pappardelle sulla lepre (with the hare
meat being cooked into a sauce, so dryness is not an issue), but even in
other regions, Campania not excluded, it is popular enough. If you need
recipes, hare or rabbit, just say so.

Victor