[Sca-cooks] Venison, not necessarily deer meat?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

On 21/05/2011 7:21 AM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>  Although no one explicitly answered my question, most replies so far
>  have supported what i posted. So i am led to infer that in SCA-period
>  cookbooks, including those in English, any recipe for "venison" could
>  be made with boar (although most of us have access only to pig), meat
>  of other large game animals, and perhaps hare (or what is sold as
>  rabbit these days),  as well as whatever species of deer meat is
>  available.

Antonia replied:
>I'm sorry, what? Hare and rabbit are two very different animals in
>terms of eating. I'd be very surprised to find hare sold as rabbit.

You misunderstood, i was not implying that hare is sold as rabbit, 
but that if we must purchase meat from a butcher rather than 
catching, dressing, and butchering it ourselves, then one may settle 
for rabbit if hare is not available, and vice versa.

Hares and rabbits are both in the same family - Leporidae, there 
being only one genus of hares, while there are 8 genera of rabbits. 
While there some significant differences, rabbits and hares share 
quite a number of similarities. Adding to the potential confusion, 
the jackrabbit common in the US is not a rabbit, but a hare, and the 
so-called Belgian hare is a rabbit. So, they can be easily confused 
by those who are not well attuned to their visual differences.

And according to what i have read, hares and rabbits can be cooked in 
the same ways. So those of us who are not hunters - which i suspect 
is the majority - and must rely on what we can purchase, we may 
substitute one for the other in recipes.
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita