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 apple cider vinegar

Fruitier and rounder than wine vinegar, which suits pork, cabbage and anything sweet. Unfiltered has more character and does nothing different chemically.

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

white wine vinegar or rice vinegar

one for one

What it gets you
The same mild acid at a similar strength for a dressing, a pickle or a braise.
What it costs you
The apple fruitiness, which in a slaw or a barbecue sauce is doing real work.

Instead · 2

lemon juice

one and a quarter times as much

What it gets you
Bright acid, fresher, and better in anything raw.
What it costs you
Keeping. A vinegar dressing lasts a week and a lemon one lasts a day.

Instead · 3

sherry or red wine vinegar

three quarters as much

What it gets you
A rounder, deeper acid that suits a braise or a bean dish better than cider does.
What it costs you
Both are stronger and darker, so a pale dressing takes on color.

Where the swap will be tasted · 3

These need it and are short enough that nothing hides: 4 required ingredients or fewer, which makes apple cider vinegar 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 apple cider vinegar 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 apple cider vinegarRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions