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 · 49 dishes here use it

Out of coconut milk

Fat that carries chili and spice further than water can, with a sweetness underneath. Do not boil it hard; it splits, and the split is not a flavor problem so much as a texture one.

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

3 of the 49 dishes here that mention coconut milk list it as optional — 6% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

heavy cream

one for one

What it gets you
The fat and the body, and it will not split under a long simmer the way a lean coconut milk can.
What it costs you
The flavor, which in a Thai or a Caribbean dish is the entire point rather than a background.

Instead · 2

cashew cream

one cup of cashews soaked and blended with a cup of water per can

What it gets you
A rich, neutral, dairy free liquid that thickens a curry and holds heat well.
What it costs you
Coconut's sweetness and perfume. Season harder to make up the difference.

Instead · 3

coconut cream or creamed coconut let down with water

the block or the thick cream, thinned to the volume the recipe wants

What it gets you
Exactly the right thing, usually stronger than the can.
What it costs you
Nothing, other than that it needs whisking into warm water or it stays in lumps.

Where you can just leave it out · 3

These dishes list coconut milk 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 · 16

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