Updated 23 September 2026

How to turn a YouTube cooking video into a written recipe

A twelve-minute video is a lovely way to learn a dish and a terrible way to cook it. You want a list you can shop from and steps you can read at the stove. Here is where the written recipe usually hides, and three ways to get it out.

Quick answer. Open the video's description and tap "more". Most cooking channels either write the recipe there or link to it on their website. Copy it into a notes app with the video link underneath. If neither exists, use the transcript, and treat any amounts with care.

Where the recipe usually is

The description. Many channels paste the full ingredients list, sometimes with timestamps for each step.
A link in the description to the channel's blog. This is often the best version: tested amounts, both metric and cups.
A pinned comment from the channel.
Only spoken. Some videos never write it down. Then the transcript is all you have.

Where the recipe hides, and how to get it

CHECK FIRSTDescriptionTap "more". Often a full ingredients list, sometimes timestamps.Copy it

BEST VERSIONBlog linkTested amounts, often in both grams and cups.Save the page

SOMETIMESPinned commentFrom the channel itself, at the top of the comments.Copy it

LAST RESORTSpoken onlyNothing written down. The transcript is all there is.Check the amounts

1. Copy the description (free, two minutes)

Expand the description, select the ingredients and method, and paste them into your notes with the video link. If there is a blog link, open it instead: blog recipes are usually more complete than the description.

2. Use the transcript (free, for spoken recipes)

On many videos you can open the transcript from the description panel ("Show transcript"). Copy it and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude, and ask for an ingredients list and numbered steps.

Check the amounts. Spoken recipes are vague ("a good pinch", "about this much"), and a chat model will often turn that into a confident number. Anything that matters - flour, salt, oven time - check against the video.

A spoken recipe, turned into a written one

1Show transcriptFrom the description panel.

2Paste into a chatAsk for ingredients and numbered steps.

3Check the numbers"A good pinch" often comes back as a confident gram amount.

3. Use an app that reads the link

Recipe apps such as ReciMe and ours take a YouTube link and give you back a recipe you can search and scale.

What Repimame does with a YouTube link (ours, so read it as our own description): it reads the video's description and turns a recipe written there into ingredients and steps. If the description only links to a website, save that page instead and you get the full recipe. If nothing is written down anywhere, we leave the amounts blank rather than invent them. The video stills beside each step are for TikTok and Instagram only, not YouTube.

Make it usable at the stove

Put the ingredients first, in the order you will use them.
Keep timestamps next to the fiddly steps, so you can jump straight to the part worth watching.
Scale it once for the number of people you actually cook for, and write that version down.

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Written 23 September 2026.