Kitchen & Bar

On this phone

How to get around

The bar under the name is the map. Swipe it sideways if a destination sits off-screen. On Tonight, the button pinned to the bottom cooks the lead dish.

  1. Tonight — What you can cook first, plus drinks that fit the same shelf.

  2. This week — Five dinners from the shelf, urgent things cooked first.

  3. Shelf — Edit what you actually own.

  4. Written methods — Every dish and drink with a method somebody wrote out.

  5. The pantry — Start from one ingredient: what it does, and everything built on it.

  6. Out of it — What to use instead, judged by the job the missing thing was doing.

  7. Photo review — Review a demo shelf photo and confirm every item before adding it.

  8. Flavor Lab — Pairings with a track record: classic matches and the mixology behind them.

  9. Wild cards — Combinations with no tradition behind them, only shared aroma notes.

  10. Send to Occasion OS — Prepare confirmed shelf availability for Occasion OS.

  11. The field — The gap this layer owns.

Keep it on the home screen

  1. iPhone — tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
  2. Android — open the browser menu, then Install app or Add to Home screen.

After that it opens as Kitchen & Bar, not a browser tab. Inventory stays on this device.

Substitutions · 6 dishes here use it

Out of amaretto

Almond-scented and very sweet, so it functions as the sugar in a drink rather than as an addition to it. Its bitterness underneath is the part that keeps it from being cloying.

Everything below is judged against that job. A swap that covers it is a swap; one that only looks similar is not.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

a few drops of almond extract in simple syrup

a quarter teaspoon of extract per ounce of syrup, used as the amaretto

What it gets you
The almond flavor and the sweetness, which is the whole of what amaretto contributes.
What it costs you
The alcohol and the body, so the drink comes out shorter and softer.

Instead · 2

orgeat plus a splash of brandy

three quarters ounce orgeat, a quarter ounce brandy per ounce

What it gets you
Almond, sugar and spirit in roughly the right proportions.
What it costs you
Orgeat is more floral and it carries orange flower water, which shows.

Instead · 3

frangelico or another nut liqueur

one for one

What it gets you
A sweet nut liqueur in the same seat at the same strength.
What it costs you
Hazelnut instead of almond, which in a coffee drink is fine and in an amaretto sour is not.

Where the swap will be tasted · 6

These need it and are short enough that nothing hides: 4 required ingredients or fewer, which makes amaretto a quarter of what is in the pan. Make the swap a decision rather than a repair.

Check what else is in the pan

The company amaretto keeps in this library, counted off required ingredients. A swap that argues with the top two is the wrong swap, whatever a chart says.

What to make with amarettoRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions