re: Cookbook recommendations that teach the basics and are accurate and consistent?

Not a book but there’s a website called Our Italian Table that has fantastic recipes if you want to do Italian.

If it hasn't been said in here yet, "How to Cook Everything" is often cited as one of the most reliable and friendly guides for novices on a wide variety of subjects.

I bought the app version, and it has been damn near indispensable in my day-to-day efforts.

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I have the compendium of Test Kitchen recipes and agree. Who the hell knows where to find a parmesan rind to make bolognese sauce?

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Test Kitchen's approach, to me, is not a productive one for a novice cook. Its whole POV is "expert knowledge" and "one true way".....rather than emphasizing some basic techniques and teaching savory cooks to riff off of what they have on hand, cooking to one's own taste, and building the skills to improvise and devise something tasty even if the pantry has a bare minimum and equipment is limited. It's too "cheffy", to me, for the beginning cook. I'm a huge supporter of home scratch cooking: accessible, delicious food rooted in straightforward technique, without emphasizing too many steps, separate components, garnishes, or other restaurant style approaches.

The restaurant-style approach, fueled by too much FoodTV and too many chef-lebrity cookbooks, is what puts me off of Blue Apron (besides excessive packaging and cost): those recipes are designed for eye appeal and for someone cooking recreationally or playing at cooking dinner...they're not designed for legit home cooks who produce food every damn day for multiple meals. Go find a pre-1980s home cook from a non-urban area: those people know how to cook...you never prep ingredients for just one meal, nor do you ever cook just one meal at a time. You plan a little bit, think ahead to how you might repurpose what you're cooking, you cook extra for the freezer (or packed lunches, or the hungry old man down the block). Those cooks know that things don't have to be pretty/IG-worthy to be delicious.

A worthwhile read is this PDF cookbook: "Good and Cheap" by Leann Brown....written to help people on TANF figure out how to stretch their food dollars, but full of great, practical, simple, inexpensive advice on building a pantry of staples, planning ahead, and simple, tasty recipes. PDF here: LINK

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For Italian, I like Marcella Hazan's, "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking".

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Agree, this is a great reference for Italian cooking.

Would add The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

Practice practice pratice