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 · 7 dishes here use it

Out of cocoa

Bitterness and depth with almost no fat, so it dries out whatever it goes into. Bloom it in something hot before it meets the rest, or it stays powdery and dull.

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 7 dishes here that mention cocoa list it as optional — 29% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

dark chocolate, melted

an ounce and a half of chocolate per three tablespoons of cocoa, and cut the recipe's fat by a tablespoon

What it gets you
Chocolate flavor with more body and more sweetness.
What it costs you
The dryness, which matters in a bake. Cocoa is a dry ingredient and chocolate is a wet one.

Instead · 2

dutch-process cocoa, if the recipe wanted natural

one for one

What it gets you
A darker, smoother chocolate flavor.
What it costs you
The acid, which was reacting with the baking soda. Something will need to rise it instead.

Instead · 3

carob powder

one for one

What it gets you
A dark, sweet, cocoa-shaped powder for anyone avoiding caffeine.
What it costs you
The bitterness, which is most of what cocoa is contributing.

Where you can just leave it out · 2

These dishes list cocoa 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 cocoa 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 cocoa 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 cocoaRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions