9 Thanksgiving Cookbooks to Elevate Your Holiday Meal

In this cookbook perfect for Thanksgiving, American cooking icon James Beard brings his signature passion and creativity to cooking various birds. He spent years avoiding turkey after he was tasked with carving up four thousand pounds of the Thanksgiving staple on Christmas Eve, 1942 during his time in the Air Force. 

When Beard finally returned to working with turkey, he did so with fresh eyes. His recipes, heavily influenced by his love of French cooking, will make your turkey the star of the meal.

Perfect for someone who has no clue where to start when cooking the biggest meal of the year, this Thanksgiving edition of Mark Bittman’s popular How to Cook Everything series will give you all the tips and tricks you need to master your entire Thanksgiving meal. Bittman’s 20 recipes include the usual dishes as well as a few non-traditional ones that just might become modern staples.

This cookbook has everything you need to make the perfect Thanksgiving dinner, and is ideal for beginners who want a little more variety than the 20 recipes offered in Mark Bittman's classic. Along with 50 delicious recipes, the book contains guides to mastering the art of hosting the kickoff to the holiday season, plus ideas for leftovers.

Preparing a vegan-friendly meal for any holiday can seem like a daunting task, especially for Thanksgiving. But Alicia C. Simpson has you covered with this collection of complete menus for nearly every major holiday. Her “Tourkey” cutlets are easy to prepare and are sure to be a favorite of any Thanksgiving dinner guest, vegan or not.

From everyone’s favorite kitchen and cookware store comes the ultimate guide to Thanksgiving. In addition to the over 80 recipes, The Best of Thanksgiving gives readers tips for organizing the meal. This cookbook also has an entire section dedicated to how to incorporate leftovers into equally delicious meals.

If you're an Instant Pot owner, you're already aware of the incredible hand-free cooking that takes places inside a pressure cooker. And while the Instant Pot isn't ideal for everything, we definitely love any Thanksgiving recipe that doesn't need to go in the oven or take up valuable stove space on Turkey Day.

This Instant Pot-approved cookbook has recipes for sides, desserts, entrees, and even a chapter dedicated to dressing up leftovers—you can't go wrong.

In recent years, it's become more and more popular for people to have a second, more informal Thanksgiving meal, this time with friends. Filled with practical advice for first-time hosts, from decorating a table to creating an oven schedule, this cookbook also includes modern twists on classic recipes, such as Garlic-Miso Gravy and Concord Grape Pie. That way, you can be sure your Friendsgiving meal won't be a repeat of what everyone is eating next Thursday.

And if Friendsgiving goes well, you and your friends may be inspired to start a cookbook book club and keep the feasting going year round!

Without a doubt, pumpkin is the flavor of fall. In addition to the Thanksgiving classic pumpkin pie, this cookbook provides readers with countless other ways to incorporate pumpkin into their holiday meal.

Pies are the grand finale of the Thanksgiving meal, and this cookbook has everything you need to really make them shine. In addition to recipes for all different types of pie, the book also contains all the knowledge you need to elevate your dessert to a work of art. In fact, it contains 25 different pie crust designs that range from beginner to expert level difficulty.