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The Worst Episodes of MeatEater

Every episode of MeatEater ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of MeatEater!

The Worst Episodes of MeatEater

Hunter, author, cook and conservationist Steven Rinella treks into the world's most remote, beautiful regions, bringing game meat from field to table.

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  1. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #1 - The Sweetest Meat: Alaskan Black Bear

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    S1:E2

    To find the best-tasting game meat, you have to earn it. As the cold Alaskan winter approaches, bears flock to the high country of Alaska's Chugach Range while feasting on cranberry and blueberry. As summer turns to fall, the bears have exhausted low-elevation fruit and their quest to fatten up pushes them into higher and less accesible terrain. The hard work and long hike pays off, as berry-fed black bears provide some of the finest tasting meat available to the American hunter. The meat is so good, that Steven Rinella plans to fry it in it’s own fat as a celebratory meal if he is lucky enough to land a bear on this trip.

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  2. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #2 - The Water's Edge: Waterfowl in Alaska

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    S1:E3

    For a waterfowler's dream hunt, Steven Rinella joins his friend, the wildlife biologist Brandt Meixell, on a river boat journey to some untouched Alaska wetlands in search ducks and geese. Using tactics ranging from decoy hunting to jump shooting, they try to fill their boat and their bellies with a constant supply of duck meat. Featured meal is willow-spit roasted whole duck.

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  3. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #3 - The Rugged Peaks: Alaskan Mountain Goat

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    S1:E4

    Every year, a handful of hunters draw a permit to hunt the Mills Creek region Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Steven Rinella holds one of the permits this year, and he and his brother Danny backpack into the mountains, into country they’ve never seen, in hopes of finding a billy goat. It’s a grueling hunt, and there’s the constant threat of losing your meat if the goat spills over a cliff.

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  4. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Stalking the Grey Ghost: Arizona Coues Whitetail Deer

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    S1:E5

    To hunt some of the most elusive game, the predator must become its prey. Steven Rinella drew a tag to hunt the elusive Coues Deer in the stark mountains of southern Arizona, where his spot and stalk skills will be pushed to the limit hunting these tiny, ghostlike deer. To successfully take a deer Steve will have to become equally invisible, quiet, and attuned to his surroundings...he will need to become a desert ghost. In tune with the local culture, Steve will pack a small kit of tortillas, chiles, and all the fixings to prepare fire-grilled heart tacos.

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  5. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #5 - The New American Food Chain: Wild Pigs

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    S1:E6

    Wild Hogs can thrive almost anywhere - just like Steve. On this trip, Steven Rinella travels to the Sacramento Valley in central California in search of challenge and seriously good food. 300 years ago Spanish settlers let a handful of pigs loose in order to turn acorns into bacon, and today harvesting a wild pig for food is nexus of wild living and seriously good food. Rinella will prepare a backcountry gourmet feast of Pork Loin roasted with Apples and Rosemary cooked in tinfoil over a fire.

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  6. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Brotherhood, Badlands and Pack Llamas: Montana Mule Deer

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    S1:E7

    Along with a trio of cantankerous and spit-hurling pack llamas, Steven Rinella, along with his brother Matt and good friend Matt Moison camp and hunt in the arid and frozen badlands of Eastern Montana for mule deer. Freezing cold temperatures and unforgiving topography add to the already-challenging job of finding and stalking a Mule Deer buck. In this environment the deer have all of the advantage: they can spot, smell, and hear hunters long before they are anywhere near shooting range. To combat the freezing temperatures, Rinella plans to make a hunter's stew to celebrate a successful hunt.

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  8. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #7 - The Roughest Country: Texas Aoudad Sheep

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    S1:E8

    Steven Rinella heads into the Texas backcountry after one of the continent's most elusive feral animals -- the Barbary sheep, or Aoudad, of North Africa. For most hunters, just glimpsing one of these animals is a trophy. If Steve is lucky enough to land one of these sheep, he plans to cook them up in traditional hunter-style over a fire.

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    #8 - Canyon Bottoms and Cookouts: Texas Javelina

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    S1:E9

    Steven Rinella takes to the thorns and thickets of a West Texas canyon in search of javelina. Smelling the animals is easy, but getting a clear shot with a bow is a whole other story. Featured meal is boiled javelina with cactus pears.

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  10. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Big Bucks and Small Game: Wisconsin Whitetail Deer

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    S1:E10

    Steven Rinella heads to Wisconsin to spend a few days on his buddy’s historical family farm. He will enlist other locals to help him hunt for a big buck or tasty doe in the cold upper reaches of the state. Featured meal is Butterflied Venison Steaks and Hassenpfeffer (Peppered Hare Stew).

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  11. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Full Boar: Whole Hog Cooking Special

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    S4:E2

    On a spring hunt in Florida Steven Rinella got his hands on a wild barred hog. In the field Steve demonstrates the best way to break a hog down and bring him home. Later, Steve and his good friend, chef Matt Weingarten, cook four preparations from the hog’s head, skin, trotters, muscle, and guts.

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    #11 - Cold Water: Alaskan Seafood Cooking Special

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    S4:E11

    After a spring bear hunt near his cabin on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska, Steven Rinella sets out with traps and rod in hand to reap in the wealth of seafood in the waters nearby. There, he catches Dungeness crabs, spot prawn, and rockfish and takes some time to dig clams on the shore near his cabin. Before returning home, Steve demonstrates how to clean and prep the seafood to freeze and store. Back in the kitchen, Steve creates a handful of dishes—both traditional and not-so-traditional—that take full advantage of that irreplaceable flavor of wild-caught seafood.

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    #12 - Big Buck Dreams: Mule Deer Special

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    S4:E12

    Set against his annual muley hunt, this year in southwest Colorado, Steven Rinella takes to the lectern and fills us in about his favorite critter, the mule deer. As Steve hunts he will share his vast knowledge about the species, how to hunt it, how to butcher it, and most importantly, how to cook and eat it.

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    #13 - Surf n Turk: Wisconsin Turkey and Carp

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    S4:E13

    Steven Rinella scratches his spring turkey itch this year as he visits Southeast Wisconsin to call in some big eastern Toms with his buddy Jerod Fink. The guys plan to do some serious cooking, and have plans to serve and enjoy a real Midwest turkey and fish fry.

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    #14 - The Best Start: Wild Game Breakfast Cooking Special

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    S4:E14

    Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but is often overlooked by wild game cooks at home. Following a series of successful hunts across North America this past fall, Steven Rinella demonstrates how to cook a variety of breakfast classics using wild game ingredients—including black bear bacon, which Steve has never tried before.

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  16. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Gila Monster: New Mexico Bull Elk

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    S4:E15

    After four years of waiting, Steven Rinella draws a coveted, limited-entry public land elk tag and heads into New Mexico’s Gila National Forest on a solo backpack hunt. His biggest challenge here is the vast expanse of hills covered in enough timber to hide an army – demanding lots of glassing and even more hiking. Here, even just one missed opportunity could result in an empty freezer at home.

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  17. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Alaska Bear Hunt with Rorke Denver (2)

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    S4:E18

    The Alaskan backcountry hunt continues as Steven Rinella and Rorke Denver manage to maneuver their way through the thicket and find themselves hot on some bears. Their luck holds out and the hunt is successful, but Rorke soon learns that the hunt is only half the battle. After a lesson in field butchering, Rorke and Steve head back to camp to do a little fishing and foraging to round out their bear feast.

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  18. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Cooking Special: Butchering a Whole Deer

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    S6:E6

    Steve walks viewers through the complex process of breaking down a whole whitetail deer, transforming it into steaks, roasts, shanks and more.

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  19. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Duren Deer Camp: Wisconsin Whitetail with Helen and Brittnay (1)

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    S6:E7

    After tuning up their shooting skills by taking aim at squirrels, Helen and Brittany hunt whitetail deer in Wisconsin with Steve and guide Doug Duren.

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    #19 - Duren Deer Camp: Wisconsin Whitetail with Helen and Brittnay (2)

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    S6:E8

    Helen and Brittany both get shots at Duren farm whitetail bucks, followed by a campfire hobo dinner that brings a close to their Wisconsin adventure.

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  21. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #20 - A Trip of Firsts: Mexico Coues Deer

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    S6:E10

    Steve and Janis head to the Sonoran Mountains of Mexico to hunt the elusive Coues deer & javelina.

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    #21 - Lone Star Pork: Texas Hog

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    S6:E11

    Steve joins ranch manager and wildlife biologist Ben Binnion for a couple of days during his annual pig roundup to learn about the other side of the Texas hog story.

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    #22 - Trapped in History: Wyoming Beaver

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    S6:E12

    Steve explains what goes into beaver trapping while retelling stories of the mountain men who depended on this animal, for both its surprisingly delicious meat and incredible hide.

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    #23 - Cooking Special: Smoked Meats with Eduardo Garcia

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    S6:E13

    Steven's appetite and recipe book are ready to collaborate with chef Eduardo Garcia, who helps him cook whitefish empanadas, muskox tongue and more.

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    #24 - Mountain Memories: Montana Bear

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    S6:E14

    Steve returns to his black bear roots in southwest Montana for a spring black bear hunt. He's hunted these mountains before, it's a special place and he's glad to be back.

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  26. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #25 - Living Off the Water: Kentucky Fish

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    S6:E15

    Set lines, limb lines, trot lines, turtle traps, bows and arrows, they all make it out onto the Kentucky water with MeatEaters Steven Rinella & Kevin Murphy.

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Worst Episodes Summary

"The Sweetest Meat: Alaskan Black Bear" is the worst rated episode of "MeatEater". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/8/2012. This episode scored NaN points lower than the second lowest rated, "The Water's Edge: Waterfowl in Alaska".