# New to Jackrabbit



## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Decided to add it to my menu for the first time.

It looked healthy, no signs of issues under skin/fur, liver looked healthy and meat is beautiful.

Two questions though:

1) I've heard rabbit has a smell during processing. Was definitely noticeable to me. Is that normal for most folks? Not horrid but distinct.

2). While cleaning off all the fat (guy was doing well going into winter) I noticed something I hadn't ever seen on wild game before. There was a very thin membrane on the meat that came off easily but collasped into almost nothing once it was removed. Hard to describe. Thoughts?

Hoping to add some cheap, healthy table fair assuming we like our first try. Bought Hank Shaws small game book and several of the jack recipes sound great. In a pot of cold water now for 24-48 hours.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

The only problem is the $45 it takes to drive to a good jack rabbit spot. You can have an amazing world class ribeye for that much. LOL


-DallanC


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## HighNDry (Dec 26, 2007)

Isn't the jackrabbit really a hare? Hare in my food isn't good.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

DallanC said:


> The only problem is the $45 it takes to drive to a good jack rabbit spot. You can have an amazing world class ribeye for that much. LOL
> 
> -DallanC


Mine is 15 minutes away. &#128513;

The problem for me is losing them in the waist high sage. Fast, juking little buggers.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

backcountry said:


> The problem for me is losing them in the waist high sage. Fast, juking little buggers.


Waist high sage... tell me more... 8)

-DallanC


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

https://honest-food.net/how-to-cut-up-a-rabbit/

I guess the membrane was actually just the silverskin/sinew. Really was the only real option but it was the silkiest I have yet to see in my limited experience(deer, grouse, pheasant) so I doubted that conclusion. It was more translucent than example in link. Guess I shouldn't second guess my gut and knowledge of the basics.

Now just a question about the smell.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Lots of meat smell quite bad until it gets cooked, then it just taste bad. :mrgreen:

Have you ever smelt a freshly skinned pheasant?


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Critter said:


> Lots of meat smell quite bad until it gets cooked, then it just taste bad.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah, for the first time on the opener this year. Thought it was maybe just me. Very similar to the smell of the jackrabbit actually. Guess I'm just getting use to the smell of small game. Though the grouse I've gotten didn't have any odor.

But that pheasant tasted amazing as a pheasant marsala. Fingers crossed for the hare. I think I'm going to make Shaw's Sardinian Stew recipe.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Jacks can be pretty tasty before the winter gets too far along. A little soak time before cooking definitely helps. Jacks tend to be quite a bit stringier and tougher than cottontails, so stews are a pretty solid way to approach it. Or you can parboil until tender and then grill/fry. 

And yeah, rabbits have a smell, as do most other things. I barely can tolerate the smell of cleaning grouse, chukars, or pheasants but they are all downright tasty once cooked.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Everything you need to know about processing and cooking jackrabbits and cottontails can be found on the UWN. Use the UWN's search engine to find the threads.

Here's a goodun:
https://utahwildlife.net/forum/26-recipes/130425-jack-rabbit.html


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

backcountry said:


> https://honest-food.net/how-to-cut-up-a-rabbit/
> 
> ...................................................


Good grief, take that guy's knife away.

.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

My Recipe for Jack Rabbit.


1- 3 Rabbits cut into 1/2" pieces. 2- 1tsp. White Musk. 3- 4oz. Beaver Castor. 4- Place Rabbit morsels in a vented bucket & let stand in the hot sun for 4-5 days. Add 1lb. Sodium Benzoate at day 5 mix together. Let bucket rest in the shade for 3-5 days. Add the Musk & Castor. Mix & let rest for a week. Divide mixture into 16 oz. plastic jars and LABEL JARS. I add propylene glycol to keep from freezing. 


I've never had the guts to taste this recipe, but, I know Mr. Coyote loves it. 8)


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Grew up on wild meat. Ducks, deer,(elk you ask..not many elk in Utah in those days) rabbits, fish. Rabbits are great eating...fry up the young ones, stew up the old. The only thing my daddy always said about rabbits was only harvest them in the mid winter...the theory being, by then, only the healthy ones will be around. 
Rabbits have fed more people in the world than any other wild meat. Stick you nose up at it if you want, but I'll take a nice young Cottontail over venison every time.


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

taxidermist said:


> My Recipe for Jack Rabbit.
> 
> 1- 3 Rabbits cut into 1/2" pieces. 2- 1tsp. White Musk. 3- 4oz. Beaver Castor. 4- Place Rabbit morsels in a vented bucket & let stand in the hot sun for 4-5 days. Add 1lb. Sodium Benzoate at day 5 mix together. Let bucket rest in the shade for 3-5 days. Add the Musk & Castor. Mix & let rest for a week. Divide mixture into 16 oz. plastic jars and LABEL JARS. I add propylene glycol to keep from freezing.
> 
> I've never had the guts to taste this recipe, but, I know Mr. Coyote loves it. 8)


I think it is fine as long as you do not add ethylene glycol.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I have a friend that has the idea that everything taste good if you put enough chili peppers in it. 

However a young jackrabbit in the stew pot is a pretty good meal.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Jacks, just like most things, if you prepare them correctly can be really good. Most preparations call for a good marinade and/or a long braise in liquid. Hassenpfeffer is another great use of Jackrabbit. Really good over spaetzle with some rehydrated wild mushrooms.

Now I need to go get some jackrabbits.


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

Never have tried eating a blacktail jack like there is out in the west desert, tularemia and such. But their larger cousin the whitetail jacks or "mountain hares" as we called them that used to roam the foothills of Cache Valley were a common table fare when I was a kid. Skin 'em, stew 'em until the meat fell of the bone, pepper them up and eat them was our preferred recipe.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Kevin D said:


> Never have tried eating a blacktail jack like there is out in the west desert, tularemia and such. But their larger cousin the whitetail jacks or "mountain hares" as we called them that used to roam the foothills of Cache Valley were a common table fare when I was a kid. Skin 'em, stew 'em until the meat fell of the bone, pepper them up and eat them was our preferred recipe.


Yeah, the tularemia issue kept me from eating them for a while. That said it seems to affect hares less than cottontails according to the data.

I stayed away as a great uncle had died of tularemia decades ago after harvesting rabbit. Its kind of a legend in my family as no one really hunts anymore and they don't fully understand the lifecylce.

I forgot gloves on the hunt but wore them for processing and butchering as it can be gotten from simply touching infected animal skin. Other than that you just need to cook it to 165F to kill the pathogen, hence braising, stewing, etc. Standard seems to be to check liver, and this one showed no signs.

I was told to focus on hunts after the first major frost. That way the vectors for the rabbit (fleas, etc) have largely died off. They are the major issue along with the occasional soil contamination. Most rabbit should be relatively safe in the winter for that reason.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Kevin D said:


> Never have tried eating a blacktail jack like there is out in the west desert, tularemia and such. But their larger cousin the whitetail jacks or "mountain hares" as we called them that used to roam the foothills of Cache Valley were a common table fare when I was a kid. Skin 'em, stew 'em until the meat fell of the bone, pepper them up and eat them was our preferred recipe.


Blacktails are good eating too. No problem at all. I don't believe jacks are any more likely to carrying tularemia than cottontails. I could be wrong though.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Kwalk3 said:


> Kevin D said:
> 
> 
> > Never have tried eating a blacktail jack like there is out in the west desert, tularemia and such. But their larger cousin the whitetail jacks or "mountain hares" as we called them that used to roam the foothills of Cache Valley were a common table fare when I was a kid. Skin 'em, stew 'em until the meat fell of the bone, pepper them up and eat them was our preferred recipe.
> ...


Statistically fewer cases involving jackrabbits than cottontail. Most of the cases are centered in the midwest other than the major grouping in CO a few years back.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Could it be that there are fewer cases with jacks than cotton tails just because there are way fewer jacks consumed by humans than cotton tails? I know that when I was a kid we used to just slaughter the jacks and let them lay where they fell and only brought home the cottontails.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Critter said:


> Could it be that there are fewer cases with jacks than cotton tails just because there are way fewer jacks consumed by humans than cotton tails? I know that when I was a kid we used to just slaughter the jacks and let them lay where they fell and only brought home the cottontails.


There is definitely some bias given the relative consumption of cottontail to jackrabbit. That would likely be seen in the CDC reports that highlight the midwest as tularemia hotspot infections in humans.

But I believe I've also read that jackrabbits aren't as common a reservior for the cause of tularemia, ie Francisella tularensis. I could understand how that might be the case ecologically (for example, rabbits burrow so they might have more exposure to contaminated soils, etc) but I'm not as confident on that claim and didn't save all of my resources on the issue.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

backcountry said:


> There is definitely some bias given the relative consumption of cottontail to jackrabbit. That would likely be seen in the CDC reports that highlight the midwest as tularemia hotspot infections in humans.
> 
> But I believe I've also read that jackrabbits aren't as common a reservior for the cause of tularemia, ie Francisella tularensis. I could understand how that might be the case ecologically (for example, rabbits burrow so they might have more exposure to contaminated soils, etc) but I'm not as confident on that claim and didn't save all of my resources on the issue.


Midwest a tularemia hotspot:
1) My take on that it's common for hunters in the Midwest to consume rabbit liver, whereas hunters here never heard of such a thing.
2) Historically upland game hunters in the Midwest didn't wear gloves when cleaning rabbits. Today more and more Midwest small game hunters are wearing surgical gloves resultant from increased exposure to Whitetail Deer diseases and the endless stream of internet threads claiming you'll die if you clean a wild rabbit bare-handed. 
3) There's more cottontails hunters in the Midwest. (Uh it's a flavor thing, there's no sagebrush in the Midwest lol)
4) It's uncommon for an Eastern Cottontail to live in a burrow where I hunted, and worked, in IL, IA, MO and WI.

We had a big Tularemia scare in Illinois in the early 70s. The chances of contacting tularemia were about the same as getting attacked by a shark (in Illinois). Regardless, there was still a risk so most of us quit eating rabbit liver, some didn't.

Anyway, 2 or 3 years ago we had the rabbit population explosion in Southwest Wyoming. We shot jacks by the cooler full. We cooked them every way imaginable; burgers, chili, stews, meatloaf, cured sausages, deepfat fried, baked, hasenpfeffer - my brother even bottle some. Even ate some jackrabbit liver! It was OK, not as good as our cottontails though in my opinion.

White skin on a rabbit? yerkiddinme


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

wyogoob said:


> backcountry said:
> 
> 
> > https://honest-food.net/how-to-cut-up-a-rabbit/
> ...


Outof curiosity, what did he do wrong?

That's how I've always seen meat rabbits packaged when we could find them locally. Seems consistent with others processing wild rabbit.


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## wagdog (Jan 6, 2009)

I got no problem eating jackrabbits. I've shot and eaten more than a handful over the past two or three years. I wanted to try them because everything I had read led me to believe that they didn't have as high an incidence of tularemia and that the meat was good if you know how to fix it. (Lots of things fall into this category of proper preparation like carp, catfish, squirrel, raccoon, etc.)

I've only cleaned one that had an issue. Ask AFCYN if you want the whole story. In short it ended with both of us jumping away from the carcass and swearin a little bit. Other than that, braised jackrabbit is pretty dang good. I can see how grinding it up with some beef or pork fat would be great too. I think cottontail is a much more approachable flavor for most but don't turn up your nose at jackrabbit.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

This thread inspired me. Had the afternoon off and made a quick run out to my jackrabbit spot.

Getting hungry already.

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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

😄👍


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*duh*



wyogoob said:


> Midwest a tularemia hotspot:
> ......................................................
> 
> White skin on a rabbit? yerkiddinme


I guess I do remove some of the white skin from a jack rabbit saddle if I de-bone it.
.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Jackrabbits are tasty. That is all.

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## kodoz (Nov 4, 2016)

My cottontail efforts have flopped this season, and I'm too slow on snowshoes try too many more times for snowshoe hares. And I don't have too much too add to this conversation except jealosy for you guys out there getting rabbits and hares, except....

Few weeks back I was trying to get lunch at Molly Greens up at Brighton, and sat down with some random guy at an empty table. I'll spare most the story, but until that I couldn't understand what a bromance was, and if it wouldn't have been the first time I'd exchanged phone numbers in a bar, I'd have asked for his. So he swore by taking the whole, gutted rabbits he was raising in his backyard--an idea of my own shot down resoundedly by the wife--stuffing them in jars, packing them in their own blood and some veggies and spices, and canning them. 
Among my top plans for the supposed cottontails--and now maybe jacks if I can get some time and a place to chase them--was chocolomo. Inspired by a x-mas vacation with a Mayan family down in the Yucatan, and watching them char onions on their wood fire for stock. Tried it a few weeks ago with venison and smoked bone broth, and it was good. When I do it again, I'm backing off the pepper and upping all the sweet spices. But check out the description...they even call out jackrabbits as being prime for the chocolomo pot. 

All freaking day looking for this bunny, and I bet he was watching me the whole time. $45 for a jackrabbit sounds like a bargain.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Getting excited again for hare and rabbit season. More and more, I've discovered I'm really might just be an upland game hunter. Not sure I have the patience for big game lotteries for the elk I Iove to track (finding I'm just not into the Utah Mule Deer hunt for some reason).

Planning to stew up the last blacktail I have in the freezer soon.

Heck, now I'm getting excited that ice fishing season is only 4 months away.


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## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

Now you've done it. I missed this post last year but now you've got me thinking and I'm going to have to try it.


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