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 · 25 dishes here use it

Out of bacon

Fat, salt and smoke, and the rendered fat is the more valuable half. Start it in a cold pan so the fat comes out before the meat seizes.

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

9 of the 25 dishes here that mention bacon list it as optional — 36% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

pancetta or guanciale

one for one

What it gets you
Cured pork fat that renders the same way, and in the Roman pastas these are the right answer.
What it costs you
Smoke. Neither is smoked, so a dish leaning on that note will read as flat.

Instead · 2

smoked paprika plus oil

half a teaspoon of paprika and a tablespoon of oil per two slices

What it gets you
The smoke and the fat, which is most of what bacon contributes to a soup or a bean pot.
What it costs you
Texture, entirely. Nothing crisp, nothing to chew.

Instead · 3

mushrooms fried hard in oil with a splash of soy

four ounces per two slices

What it gets you
Savory depth and crisp brown edges, and it goes on top of things convincingly.
What it costs you
The rendered fat that was going to cook everything else. Add oil and add it early.

Where you can just leave it out · 9

These dishes list bacon as optional. They were written to work without it, so no ratio is needed and nothing has to be bought.

Where the swap will be tasted · 6

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