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 · 28 dishes here use it

Out of basil

Perfume rather than flavor, and heat destroys it. Tear it, add it off the heat, and never let it sit in a hot pan — cooked basil tastes like hay.

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

46% of the 28 dishes here that mention basil already list it as optional. Before you look for a replacement, check whether you are in one of them.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

a mix of parsley and mint

two parts parsley to one of mint

What it gets you
A sweet, fresh, soft herb note in the same register, which carries a pesto or a salad.
What it costs you
The clove-and-anise thing basil does, which is unmistakable when it is missing.

Instead · 2

arugula, for pesto

one for one

What it gets you
A peppery green that blends into exactly the same sauce and does not bruise or brown.
What it costs you
Sweetness, replaced by bitterness. It wants a little more cheese and a little more oil.

Instead · 3

dried basil or dried oregano, for a cooked sauce

a teaspoon dried per quarter cup fresh

What it gets you
A herbal backbone in a long simmer, where fresh basil would have been wasted anyway.
What it costs you
Everything about fresh basil on top of a finished dish.
Not here
Caprese, and anything where the leaf is visible.

Where you can just leave it out · 13

These dishes list basil 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 · 8

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