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 · 12 dishes here use it

Out of corn

Sugar that starts turning to starch the moment it is picked, which is why frozen often beats fresh. Charred hard it goes nutty and stops being merely sweet.

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

What to reach for

Instead · 1

frozen corn

one for one

What it gets you
Better corn than fresh for ten months of the year, because it was cut and frozen the same day.
What it costs you
The cob, which for a grill or a chowder is doing structural work.

Instead · 2

peas or edamame

one for one

What it gets you
Small sweet pops of green in a salad, a fried rice or a succotash.
What it costs you
The starch and the specific sugar. A chowder will be thinner.

Instead · 3

hominy or canned corn

one for one

What it gets you
A pantry version ready immediately, and hominy in particular is a better ingredient in a stew.
What it costs you
Sweetness and crunch. Hominy is chewy and savory and it changes the dish's accent.

Where the swap will be tasted · 5

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