[mcspiff]

To add to that excellent point, I’ve personally found while I’m learning it’s easier to stick to a small number of authors for recipes. Since the same author will tend to make the same assumptions, you kind of perfect their style (or your take on it at least). Like all things cooking, ymmv of course.

[walshemj]

I find Felicity Cloake in the guardian a useful resource.

She takes a recipe and try's out various different recipes to work out the best version eg CTM (Chiken Tika Masala)

[denton-scratch]

Cloake suits my way of cooking!

Her "How to cook the perfect..." series is my go-to for classic dishes. She takes advice from multiple cooks and books, and distils her "perfect" recipe from there. That is how I cook; I read multiple recipes, and take the advice I like best. Cloake makes that easy.

She had a recipe for croque monsieur up recently; it's spot-on.

[__turbobrew__]

Cooks Illustrated is good for this too. They try a bunch of recipe permutations and them explain why they designed the recipe to function in a certain way.