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- Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching.
- It’s just the first of several food-related holidays in the not-so-distant future.
- YouTube is full of great cooking channels to prepare for the next few months – and maybe for the rest of your life.
The biggest food holiday of the year is nearly upon us!
With just a handful of days to go until Thanksgiving, it’s the perfect time to begin marathoning cooking shows as inspiration. And, these days, all the best cooking shows are online.
Whether you’re Binging with Babish, watching Matty Matheson scream around a kitchen, spinning it with Sohla El-Waylly, or going traditional with Julia Child, there’s an overabundance of great options on YouTube to get you ready for the big day – and all the days after Thanksgiving.
These are the best of what’s available:
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Bon Appétit experienced a rapid fall from grace last year, to put it very politely, after Insider reported on its toxic culture that marginalized staffers of color. The publication’s editor-in-chief stepped down, and many of its big “name” staffers have since moved on.
But before the publication’s staff and its video channel imploded, Bon Appétit created an excellent cooking series named “Making Perfect.” The idea, as its name implies, is to create a “perfect” version of a dish, and in the second season of this show, BA’s featured video staff tackled Thanksgiving staples. It’s as good a place as any to start your journey down the rabbit hole of Thanksgiving cooking.
Check out the Bon Appétit “Making Perfect” Thanksgiving series right here.
Here’s the Bon Appétit “Making Perfect” video on roasting turkey:
2. Munchies, from Vice, has a great how-to from a unique chef.
Munchies is kind of like the exact opposite vibe of Bon Appétit, with a focus on chefs and attitude over more traditional “stand and stir” shows.
That said, Munchies is full of useful cooking techniques that are aimed at helping home cooks.
In the case of Thanksgiving, one particular Munchies star comes to mind: Matty Matheson.
Maybe you’ve seen him on his excellent, often ridiculous show, “Cookin’ Something.” Or maybe you’ve seen him as a guest on any number of other YouTube food channels. Before he was doing any of that stuff, he was making excellent how-to videos for Vice’s food publication, Munchies.
He brings years of professional experience to his lessons, and his presentation is unlike anyone else before him.
Look no further than this video of Matheson’s Thanksgiving feast for a start:
3. Binging with Babish helps you re-create A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Andrew Rea/Binging with Babish
Andrew Rea is the host of “Binging with Babish” and “Basics with Babish” — two excellent shows on his YouTube cooking channel.
“Binging with Babish” focuses on adapting foods from pop culture, which sounds fluffy but is surprisingly dense with useful cooking information. His take on Spaghetti Carbonara from “Master of None,” for instance, demonstrates how to make pasta from scratch, among many other useful techniques.
“Basics with Babish,” however, is even better for pre-Thanksgiving prep. It’s the kind of basics-focused cooking show that reinforces crucial foundational aspects of cooking that you’ll need for the upcoming holiday. Ever wondered why some gravies are better than others? His episode on sauces will answer your questions. As we all know, Thanksgiving is really about the gravy.
Check out both shows on Andrew Rea’s YouTube channel right here.
And here’s that video of Rea re-creating a classic Thanksgiving meal starring Charlie Brown and Snoopy:
4. Food Wishes combines a veteran home-cook’s sensibility with the technique of a former chef:
Chef John’s Food Wishes is my personal favorite YouTube channel about cooking. Not only does he have years of experience, but he’s a hilariously quirky man.
Moreover, Chef John’s been doing the YouTube thing longer than most in the game — his videos go back 10 years! Before that, he was doing the actual chef thing as John Mitzewich, working in kitchens for years and eventually teaching at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
His videos range from simple to complex, American comfort food to ancient Roman throwbacks. And yes, of course, he has a ton of Thanksgiving recipe ideas and techniques for you to gobble down.
Here’s a direct link to Chef John’s Thanksgiving side dishes playlist.
Check out Chef John’s most recent turkey prep video right here:
5. America’s Test Kitchen goes super deep on all things cooking, and Thanksgiving is no exception.
To say that America’s Test Kitchen has years of experience is to drastically undersell the vast trove of testing and publishing available through the incredible ATK YouTube channel.
They’ve roasted turkeys in dozens of ways, and walked through stock making, and all manner of other Thanksgiving-centric content. It’s a channel intended to teach great home cooking, and the work on Thanksgiving stuff is no exception.
Take a look through that history right here.
Here are a trio of killer tips to keep in mind this holiday:
6. Serious Eats showcases techniques, like spatchcocking, that could make your Thanksgiving much easier.
If you’ve ever watched and enjoyed Alton Brown’s “Good Eats,” or “America’s Test Kitchen,” then Serious Eats is for you.
The publication takes a scientific approach to cooking that does more than offer recipes — it offers explanations. It’s those explanations that are often the strongest building blocks for new cooks. Some videos can be a bit over-the-top when it comes to devices and techniques, but it’s always rooted in logic.
Check out some of Serious Eats’ best turkey advice right here.
Check out this time-saving tip from Serious Eats for how to “spatchcock” – or split open – your turkey:
7. BuzzFeed’s Tasty section has some killer videos.
When you think of BuzzFeed’s “Tasty” channel, you might not think of deeply educational cooking videos.
It’s a channel that’s as well known for creating gigantic versions of food as it is for the hit series “Worth It.” Beyond that stuff, Tasty also makes outrageously smart and beautiful instructional videos under the “Tasty 101” series branding. These videos go deep on basics of cooking, and help shepherd the uninitiated into being self-sufficient.
Look no further than 2018’s excellent turkey video for proof of that, just below. It actually convinced me to break down my turkey and roast it in parts.
For the record: This is the video I use to make my Thanksgiving turkey every year, and I swear by it.
Tasty’s video on roasting a turkey is second to none:
8. Yes: Julia Child
PBS
This one isn’t totally on YouTube — you’ll have to navigate to PBS.org and punch in your local affiliate station. But after you do that, you’ll have access to a glorious archive of Julia Child and Jacques Pépin cooking content.
If you’re really hurting to watch this stuff on a TV, many of the classic “The French Chef” episodes can be found on YouTube with a simple search. Additionally, many of her other shows are available on Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, and other streaming services for rental (and sometimes for free as part of your subscription).
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