When you install from your recovery partition you get the latest version of OS X/mac OS that was actually installed on your Mac; Internet recovery gets you the version with which your Mac shipped, so, in your instance, El Cap and Yosemite, respectively.

You're correct about there being no version of OS X installed in a recovery partition, which is, after all, only about 500 MB in size.

Last edited by artie505; 09/25/16 04:00 PM. Reason: More
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