Six basic cooking techniques (2018)

The slimmest book here and the most focused. Jennifer Clair, founder of the Home Cooking New York cooking school and a former food editor at Martha Stewart Living, teaches exactly six skills: basic knife work, cooking meat, pan sauces, blanching green vegetables, roasting vegetables and cooking leafy greens. That short list covers a surprising number of weeknight dinners, a seared piece of meat with a quick sauce and a tray of roast vegetables being the obvious first one, and repeating the same handful of skills builds habits that a thick compendium can bury. Choose it if a big cookbook would sit unopened, then move on to a larger one once the six feel automatic.