The WORST episodes of MeatEater

#1 - Turkey Troubles

Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/2019

Steve and Janis serve turkey pâté and tacos before taking first-time hunters Tracy Crane and Maggie Smith into the hills of Montana for wild turkeys.

#2 - Cooking Special: Giving Thanks

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/18/2012

The Pilgrims didn't get their turkey at the store and neither does Steven Rinella. On this special Holiday episode Steve cooks three enticing dishes: Wild Turkey Galantine, Smoked Black Bear Ham, and his take on the traditional Mincemeat Pie. Appetites will run large as Steve makes a special meal for his family and friends.

#3 - Meet the MeatEaters: Montana Crew Muley (2)

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/21/2013

#4 - Meet the MeatEaters: Montana Crew Muley (1)

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/14/2013

The goal on MeatEater has always been to make viewers feel like they’re on a hunt with Steven Rinella, but on this two-part episode Rinella grants his viewers an all-access pass to see just how the MeatEater crew works together to make the show. In this first installment, Steve has promised his crew he will provide them with some high-test venison to share with their families for Thanksgiving Dinner. But can he deliver?

#5 - Primal Cuts: Bone-In Cooking Special

Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 10/27/2013

In this cooking special, Steven Rinella shows his fans some of his favorite preparations for big, bone-in cuts of red meat. Interspersed with highlights from his recent caribou, buffalo, and mule deer hunts, the show features recipes that utilize some of the most underappreciated parts of big game animals. This episode is an attractive and delicious tribute to Steve’s gun-to-table ethic.

#6 - Cooking Special: Wild Game for the Big Game

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/2/2013

With a full freezer from a long and successful fall season, any big sporting event is the perfect opportunity to cook up a pile of game meat and invite over some friends to watch the game. Steven Rinella prepares a collection of killer appetizers from animals harvested on recent MeatEater episodes. Featured dishes include tahr chili, Dall sheep sliders, Javelina tacos, and caribou sausage. These recipes are easy to make at home. With Steve’s help, your next party will truly be a wild game.

#7 - The Mud and The Trees

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/18/2019

Steve joins wildlife biologist Parker Hall as they set lines for flathead catfish on the Missouri River and hunt gray squirrels for a unique recipe.

#8 - Blue Mountain Bugles

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/18/2019

Steve and Janis hunt the forests of Washington for bull elk, but a bad arrow shot results in a slightly spoiled harvest and Steve feeling remorseful.

#9 - Ghosts of the Chesapeake (1)

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/18/2019

Steve and some local experts visit the marshlands of the Chesapeake Bay to hunt non-native sika deer and set a chicken-neck trotline for blue crabs.

#10 - Ghosts of the Chesapeake (2)

Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/18/2019

The sika deer hunt in the marshes of the Chesapeake Bay yields better results -- and some delicious venison -- once muzzleloader-rifle season opens.

#11 - Full Boar: Whole Hog Cooking Special

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/16/2014

Nose to Tail cooking has never been so real. On a spring hunt in Florida Steve got his hands on a wild barred hog and brought him home set on an extravagant meal. In the field Steve demonstrates the best way to break a hog down and bring him home-great butchering and preservation tips are included. After the journey back to Brooklyn, Steve and his good friend, chef Matt Weingarten, cook four preparations from the hog's head, skin, trotters, muscle, and guts.

#12 - Borderland Bucks (1)

Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/18/2019

Steve heads south of the border into the mountains of Sonora in Mexico to hunt for the elusive Coues deer with buddies Mark Kenyon and Ryan Callaghan.

#13 - Borderland Bucks (2)

Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/18/2019

The Coues deer hunt in Mexico continues, and the ranch chef shows the crew how to make fresh chili colorado tamales with venison.

#14 - Walking The Clouds

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/18/2019

Steve flies with his brother Danny to the alpine ridges of Alaska, where they stalk Dall sheep while marveling at the stark beauty of the landscape.

#15 - South Texas Redfish & Flounder

Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/2020

Steve joins chef Jesse Griffiths on the Texas coast to target redfish and sea trout with Captain JT Van Zandt and gig for flounder with Captain David Dupnik. An abundance of fish results in a seafood feast.

#16 - South Texas Nilgai

Season 9 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/2020

Steve and Jesse head inland to hunt for an Indian antelope known as Nilgai. An efficient hunt leaves plenty of time for Steve and Jesse to dive into butchering and cooking the wild beast for a nose-to-tail throwdown.

#17 - Wyoming Mule Deer (1)

Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/16/2020

With the help of Crooked Sky Outfitters, Steve rides horseback into the backcountry of Wyoming with Janis Putelis and Adam Weatherby in search of mule deer. Steve and Landon find the buck of his dreams, but a sudden snow squall complicates the stalk. The Bridger-Teton National Forest in Western Wyoming has a great reputation for big mule deer but also for tough winters and high winter mortality among the deer. Recently coming out of a cycle of bad winters for that killed a lot of deer, does the region hold up to its reputation for trophy deer?

#18 - Wyoming Mule Deer (2)

Season 9 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/16/2020

Steve, Janis and Adam continue their mule deer hunt in the Wyoming High Country.

#19 - Colorado Elk

Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/16/2020

Steve draws a coveted muzzleloader elk tag in the majestic San Juan Mountains of Colorado, but the hunt is harder than expected. More hunters than elk, lung-breaking elevation, and primitive equipment stack the odds against him. The San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado feature steep cliffs, towering firs, and sprawling grasslands covering broad valleys. It’s a breathtaking place full of lots of elk and lots of elk hunters. It’s high elevation and hunting here is a leg- and lung-burning experience.

#20 - Guyana (3)

Season 7 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/2/2018

In the fourth and final leg of his Guyana journey, Steve and his party portage their boats around rapids to bow-fish for pacu, an herbivorous piranha.

#21 - Lone Star Pork: Texas Hog

Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 8/25/2016

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.

#22 - Trapped in History: Wyoming Beaver

Season 6 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/1/2016

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.

#23 - Cooking Special

Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/8/2016

Steven is a cooking thief, otherwise known as a student of the culinary arts, and this week, he's learning from chef eduardo garcia of charged film and montana mex, a storied chef who loves wild game as much as steve does.

#24 - Mountain Memories: Montana Bear

Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 9/22/2016

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.

#25 - Living off the Water: Kentucky Fish

Season 6 - Episode 15 - Aired 9/29/2016

Set lines, limb lines, trot lines, turtle traps, bows and arrows, they all make it out onto the kentucky water with meateaters steven rinella and kevin murphy.