Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 17th Edition (2018)

The book that has sat in American kitchens since its first edition in 1930, and its 2018 edition shows you every dish: each recipe comes with a photo of the finished food, so you know what you are aiming for before you start. Where a step is genuinely tricky, step-by-step pictures fill in the gap, and the recipes are the familiar standards most people grew up eating. It teaches less of the why than the technique books further down, but if you want one trustworthy all-rounder that answers "how do I make that?" it is still hard to beat.