Hare

Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares, like all leporids, have jointed, or kinetic, skulls, unique among mammals. They have 48 chromosomes,[10] while rabbits have 44.[11] Hares have not been domesticated, while some rabbits are raised for food and kept as pets.

Most rabbits live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares live in simple nests above the ground, and usually do not live in groups. Hares do not bear their young below ground in a burrow as do other leporids, but rather in a shallow depression or flattened nest of grass called a form. Young hares are adapted to the lack of physical protection, relative to that afforded by a burrow, by being born fully furred and with eyes open. They are hence precocial, able to fend for themselves soon after birth. By contrast, rabbits are altricial, being born blind and hairless.[12]

The 33 species listed are:

Hare

Brooklyn Museum - California Hare - John J. Audubon

Cape hare (Lepus capensis)

European hare (above) and mountain hare

• Genus Lepus[13][14]
  • Subgenus Macrotolagus
    • Antelope jackrabbit, Lepus alleni
  • Subgenus Poecilolagus
    • Snowshoe hare, Lepus americanus
  • Subgenus Lepus
    • Arctic hare, Lepus arcticus
    • Alaskan hare, Lepus othus
    • Mountain hare, Lepus timidus
  • Subgenus Proeulagus
    • Black jackrabbit, Lepus insularis
    • Desert hare, Lepus tibetanus
    • Tolai hare, Lepus tolai
  • Subgenus Eulagos
    • Broom hare, Lepus castroviejoi
    • Yunnan hare, Lepus comus
    • Korean hare, Lepus coreanus
    • European hare, Lepus europaeus
    • Manchurian hare, Lepus mandshuricus
    • Ethiopian highland hare, Lepus starcki
  • Subgenus Sabanalagus
    • Ethiopian hare, Lepus fagani
    • African savanna hare, Lepus victoriae
  • Subgenus Indolagus
    • Hainan hare, Lepus hainanus
    • Indian hare, Lepus nigricollis
    • Burmese hare, Lepus peguensis
  • Subgenus Sinolagus
    • 

      Alaskan hare's skeletal system (Museum of Osteology)
      Chinese hare, Lepus sinensis
  • Subgenus Tarimolagus
    • Yarkand hare, Lepus yarkandensis
  • Incertae sedis
    • Tamaulipas jackrabbit, Lepus altamirae
    • Japanese hare, Lepus brachyurus
    • Black-tailed jackrabbit, Lepus californicus
    • White-sided jackrabbit, Lepus callotis
    • Cape hare, Lepus capensis
    • Corsican hare, Lepus corsicanus
    • Tehuantepec jackrabbit, Lepus flavigularis
    • Granada hare, Lepus granatensis
    • Abyssinian hare, Lepus habessinicus
    • Woolly hare, Lepus oiostolus
    • Scrub hare, Lepus saxatilis
    • White-tailed jackrabbit, Lepus townsendii

Young Hare, a watercolour, 1502, by Albrecht Dürer

Hares and rabbits are plentiful in many areas, adapt to a wide variety of conditions, and reproduce quickly, so hunting is often less regulated than for other varieties of game. In rural areas of North America and particularly in pioneer times,[15] they were a common source of meat. Because of their extremely low fat content, they are a poor choice as a survival food.[16]

Hares can be prepared in the same manner as rabbits—commonly roasted or parted for breading and frying.

Hasenpfeffer (also spelled Hasenfeffer) is a traditional German stew made from marinated rabbit or hare. Pfeffer here means not only the obvious spicing with pepper and other spices, but also means a dish in which the animal's blood is used as a thickening agent for the sauce. Wine or vinegar is also a prominent ingredient, to lend a sourness to the recipe.

Lagos stifado (Λαγός στιφάδο)—hare stew with pearl onions, vinegar, red wine, and cinnamon—is a much-prized dish enjoyed in Greece and Cyprus and communities in the diaspora, particularly in Australia, where the hare is hunted as a feral pest.

The hare (and in recent times, the rabbit) is a staple of Maltese cuisine. The dish was presented to the island's Grandmasters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as well as Renaissance Inquisitors resident on the island, several of whom went on to become pope.

According to Jewish tradition, the hare is among mammals deemed not kosher, and therefore not eaten by observant Jews. Muslims deem coney meat (rabbit, pika, hyrax) to be halal, and in Egypt, hare and rabbit are popular meats for mulukhiyah (jute leaf soup), especially in Cairo.[17]

The blood of a freshly killed hare can be collected for consumption in a stew or casserole in a cooking process known as jugging. First the entrails are removed from the hare carcass before it is hung in a larder by its hind legs, which causes blood to accumulate in the chest cavity. One method of preserving the blood after draining it from the hare (since the hare is usually hung for a week or more) is to mix it with red wine vinegar to prevent coagulation, and then to store it in a freezer.[18][19]

Jugged hare, known as civet de lièvre in France, is a whole hare, cut into pieces, marinated, and cooked with red wine and juniper berries in a tall jug that stands in a pan of water. It traditionally is served with the hare's blood (or the blood is added right at the end of the cooking process) and port wine.[20][21][22][23]

Jugged hare is described in an influential 18th-century English cookbook, The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, with a recipe titled, "A Jugged Hare", that begins, "Cut it into little pieces, lard them here and there ..." The recipe goes on to describe cooking the pieces of hare in water in a jug set within a bath of boiling water to cook for three hours.[24] In the 19th century, a myth arose that Glasse's recipe began with the words "First, catch your hare."[21]

Many other British cookbooks from before the middle of the 20th century have recipes for jugged hare. Merle and Reitch[25] have this to say about jugged hare, for example:

The best part of the hare, when roasted, is the loin and the thick part of the hind leg; the other parts are only fit for stewing, hashing, or jugging. It is usual to roast a hare first, and to stew or jug the portion which is not eaten the first day. ...

To Jug A Hare. This mode of cooking a hare is very desirable when there is any doubt as to its age, as an old hare, which would be otherwise uneatable, may be made into an agreeable dish.

In 2006, a survey of 2021 people for the UKTV Food television channel found only 1.6% of the people under 25 recognized jugged hare by name. Seven of ten stated they would refuse to eat jugged hare if it were served at the house of a friend or a relative.[26]

In England, a now rarely served dish is potted hare. The hare meat is cooked, then covered in at least one inch (preferably more) of butter. The butter is a preservative (excludes air); the dish can be stored for up to several months. It is served cold, often on bread or as an appetizer.

Dreihasenfenster (Window of Three Hares) in Paderborn Cathedral

A study in 2004 followed the history and migration of a symbolic image of three hares with conjoined ears. In this image, three hares are seen chasing each other in a circle with their heads near its centre. While each of the animals appears to have two ears, only three ears are depicted. The ears form a triangle at the centre of the circle and each is shared by two of the hares. The image has been traced from Christian churches in the English county of Devon right back along the Silk Road to China, via western and eastern Europe and the Middle East. Before its appearance in China, it was possibly first depicted in the Middle East before being reimported centuries later. Its use is associated with Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist sites stretching back to about 600 CE.[34]