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 · 3 dishes here use it

Out of creme de cacao

Chocolate as a sweetener, and the clear version tastes the same as the brown one. It sweetens hard, so it displaces syrup rather than joining it.

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

chocolate liqueur, or dark chocolate melted into simple syrup

one for one; an ounce of chocolate per two ounces of syrup

What it gets you
Chocolate and sugar in a shakeable form.
What it costs you
Clarity, if the recipe wanted the white version, and the homemade one separates if it sits.

Instead · 2

coffee liqueur

one for one

What it gets you
A dark, sweet liqueur with roasted bitterness, which sits in the same drinks.
What it costs you
The chocolate. A grasshopper made with it is an entirely different drink.

Instead · 3

simple syrup plus a dash of chocolate bitters

three quarters ounce syrup, three dashes

What it gets you
Sweetness with a chocolate aroma, which is enough in a spirit-forward drink.
What it costs you
Body and depth. In a creamy drink there is nothing to hold on to.

Where the swap will be tasted · 3

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