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 · 13 dishes here use it

Out of chili oil

Heat suspended in fat, which spreads it further than dry chili can. The crisp solids at the bottom are the good part; a jar poured off the top is half the ingredient.

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

2 of the 13 dishes here that mention chili oil list it as optional — 15% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

chili flakes warmed in neutral oil

a tablespoon of flakes in a quarter cup of oil, off the heat at the first sizzle

What it gets you
Actual chili oil, in four minutes, and it is better than most of what is sold.
What it costs you
The crisp bits, unless you add fried garlic or shallot, which takes another five.

Instead · 2

harissa or gochujang thinned with oil

a teaspoon of paste in a tablespoon of oil

What it gets you
Heat carried in fat, spoonable onto a bowl or a dumpling.
What it costs you
The clarity and the fragrance. Pastes are thick and sweet where chili oil is thin and toasty.

Instead · 3

hot sauce plus a spoon of sesame oil

a teaspoon of each

What it gets you
Heat and toasted aroma together from two bottles most kitchens have.
What it costs you
The vinegar comes along, and it will thin a sauce it was meant to enrich.

Where you can just leave it out · 2

These dishes list chili oil 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 · 1

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