I also use the Joy of Cooking and love it (as well as Mastering the Art of French Cooking). > On the other hand, I refuse to make recipes found on the internet

I also use the Joy of Cooking and love it (as well as Mastering the Art of French Cooking). > On the other hand, I refuse to make recipes found on the internet. They work extremely rarely if you’re like me and don’t have a sense of “what the authors really mean when they say X.” What I do is look at about half a dozen recipes online when I am trying something new. I compare them and make my own recipe based on that. Through practice I can usually glance at them and see pretty quickly what they are doing differently and similarly. Most dishes come out really well because I can get a feel for the dish before it's made and I have the freedom to make changes based on what the different recipes say (and my intuition). I'd encourage everybody to take this approach and not follow just one recipe.