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 · 39 dishes here use it

Out of cabbage

Cheap, keeps for weeks, and completely different raw and cooked. Shredded raw it is crunch and pepper; charred hard in a dry pan it goes sweet and nutty and stops being a diet vegetable.

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

5 of the 39 dishes here that mention cabbage list it as optional — 13% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

napa cabbage or bok choy

one for one

What it gets you
The same brassica sweetness with a shorter cooking time and more water.
What it costs you
Structure. Neither holds up in a slaw the way green cabbage does — they wilt within an hour of being dressed.

Instead · 2

brussels sprouts, shredded

one for one by weight

What it gets you
Small cabbages, which is what they are. They shred into a slaw and roast beautifully.
What it costs you
The time it takes to shred a pound of them, and they are stronger, so a raw salad needs more acid.

Instead · 3

kale or collards, sliced thin

one for one by weight

What it gets you
A sturdy green that survives braising, frying and dressing overnight.
What it costs you
Sweetness and crunch. These are bitter and leathery, so they want salt, fat and a longer massage.

Where you can just leave it out · 5

These dishes list cabbage 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 · 12

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