MeatEater - Season 4

First aired: 1/9/2014 18 episodes

Episodes

1. Sea Bear: Alaska Spring Bear and Seafood

Aired: 1/9/2014

Steven Rinella ventures out to his hunting and fishing shack on a remote coastline of southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. While hunting bears from a skiff and a canoe, Steve gathers a variety of prime seafood and makes a discovery about his own motivations as a bear hunter.

2. Full Boar: Whole Hog Cooking Special

Aired: 1/16/2014

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.

3. Bull By Boat: British Columbia Moose

Aired: 1/23/2014

Steven Rinella and his buddy Ryan Callaghan float a remote river on a moose hunt that results in some of the most dangerous moments in Steve’s life as a hunter. The two hunters travel far from civilization in a raft to search for the massive moose that call the area home.

4. Local Motion: Montana Bull Elk

Aired: 1/30/2014

Steven Rinella gets brutalized by bad weather and fierce competition during a late-season central Montana elk hunt. Guided only by waypoints shared by a buddy of his, Steve encounters plenty of elk but is plagued by other hunters at every turn – leaving Steve with a tough, ethical decision that hunters sometimes face: to pursue or not to pursue?

5. The Northern Rockies: British Columbia Grizzly (1)

Aired: 2/6/2014

Steven Rinella and his buddy Ryan Callaghan, a British Columbia guide, hike into the steep backcountry of northern British Columbia in search of grizzlies. This alpine adventure includes some intense and up-close bear action – almost too close.

6. The Northern Rockies: British Columbia Grizzly (2)

Aired: 2/13/2014

Steve and his buddy Ryan Callaghan continue to search for grizzlies but don’t want to go home empty-handed. When they spot a sizable black bear, Steve decides to pursue it -- keeping an eye out for that elusive boar grizz.

7. Opening Day: Wisconsin Whitetail (1)

Aired: 2/20/2014

Steven Rinella and his buddy Doug Duren give comedians Joe Rogan and Bryan Callen their first taste of Midwest deer hunting culture by sitting in freezing ground blinds on opening day in Wisconsin. The biggest challenge isn't the cold, it's the temptation to shoot a young, immature buck on Doug's well-managed farmland. It just wouldn't be a trip to the Duren Family Farm without a little trapping and duck hunting thrown in, rounding out the larder for a big wild game feast.

8. Opening Day: Wisconsin Whitetail (2)

Aired: 2/27/2014

The Wisconsin hunt with comedians Joe Rogan and Bryan Callen continues as the hunters attempt to thin Doug's deer herd by culling some does. The cold just won't relent and the guys get a real taste of northern air. Steven Rinella checks his traps in hopes of giving Joe and Bryan their first taste of beaver meat, and Joe learns an important and fundamental lesson of the hunting lifestyle. After a weekend of hard hunting, they all converge on the kitchen to partake in the spoils and eat their fill of fresh meat.

9. Spring Beak: Florida Osceola Turkey

Aired: 3/6/2014

Steven Rinella and his friend, Robert Abernathy, head to southern Florida to hunt Osceola turkeys. Steve hopes to finish off his royal turkey slam, achieved by bagging all five subspecies of the American wild turkey—a quest that’s been a decade in the making. Featured meal is a grilled and stuffed turkey breast.

10. Boone and Bugles: Kentucky Bull Elk

Aired: 7/31/2014

Steven Rinella is invited by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to hunt elk during the rut in the coal country of southeastern Kentucky, a place once roamed by his hero Daniel Boone. This is Steve’s first eastern elk hunt, and he quickly realizes that the rules of the game here are different. If he manages to bump into one, he’ll prepare what was supposedly Boone’s favorite meal: elk liver.

11. Cold Water: Alaskan Seafood Cooking Special

Aired: 8/7/2014

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.

12. Big Buck Dreams: Mule Deer Special

Aired: 8/14/2014

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.

13. Surf n Turk: Wisconsin Turkey and Carp

Aired: 8/21/2014

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.

14. The Best Start: Wild Game Breakfast Cooking Special

Aired: 8/28/2014

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.

15. Gila Monster: New Mexico Bull Elk

Aired: 9/4/2014

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.

16. Hearts of Darkness: Ticker Cooking Special

Aired: 9/11/2014

While it’s considered a long-standing hunting tradition to eat the heart of your first kill, the heart is otherwise often underutilized in a wild game chef’s repertoire. Using the hearts from a wild boar, mule deer, caribou, moose and elk, Steven Rinella shares five of his favorite methods of preparing this underappreciated, nutrient-rich muscle.

17. Alaska Bear Hunt with Rorke Denver (1)

Aired: 9/18/2014

Masters of their respective fields, Steven Rinella will take Navy SEAL Rorke Denver deep into the Alaskan backcountry to hunt black bears in the mighty Alaska Range. After several flights and a long climb up the ridge, the men will trade secrets and look into the differences and similarities between the hunter and the warrior. The bears are out and hungry, but they’re fast and in dense cover, forcing the men to work hard for their mountain meal.

18. Alaska Bear Hunt with Rorke Denver (2)

Aired: 9/25/2014

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.