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 · 41 dishes here use it

Out of cilantro

Citrusy and soapy in equal measure depending on who is eating it. The stems have more flavor than the leaves and stand up to a little heat, so they go in the pan and the leaves go on top.

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

73% of the 41 dishes here that mention cilantro 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

flat leaf parsley

one for one

What it gets you
The green, the volume and the same knife work, and half the table will prefer it.
What it costs you
The citrus edge that makes cilantro cilantro. A salsa without it is a tomato salad.

Instead · 2

thai basil or a mix of mint and parsley

one for one

What it gets you
Something aromatic doing the same finishing job with a comparable brightness.
What it costs you
It is a different dish. This is a good outcome, not a hidden one.

Instead · 3

the stems, if you were only using the leaves

the whole bunch

What it gets you
More flavor than the leaves, actually. Cilantro stems are where most of it lives and they take heat far better.
What it costs you
Nothing. Chop them fine and put them in earlier.

Where you can just leave it out · 30

These dishes list cilantro 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 · 4

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