Recipe collections are pointless anyway. The best cookery book I have is Process Cookery, a textbook for commercial cooks studying at vocational colleges in England. It tells exactly how to do things and has example recipes with flowcharts showing which parts of the process are unique and which parts are common to other recipes.
It doesn't go into a lot of theoretical detail about food chemistry but it is an eminently practical and down to earth textbook for people who will cook for a living. No frills, no pictures.
