Comment by mauvehaus
The ATK cookbooks are fantastic, not only for explaining how the recipe works, but also explaining some of the things they tried that didn't make the cut and why they thought they didn't work.
They also did a cookbook devoted to recipes for two people a while back. Love that.
Also https://www.seriouseats.com/, they cover almost everything (including kitchen equipment) and offer great explanations in their How-Tos https://www.seriouseats.com/how-tos-5118034