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 · 110 dishes here use it

Out of cumin

Earthy and slightly bitter, and it needs heat to open. Toasted in a dry pan or bloomed in oil it changes character completely; stirred into a finished dish it tastes dusty.

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

17 of the 110 dishes here that mention cumin list it as optional — 15% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

coriander seed, ground

one for one

What it gets you
A warm ground spice in the same family of dishes, and the two are so often used together that half a recipe already expects it.
What it costs you
The earth. Cumin is heavy and low; coriander is citrusy and high, so the dish lifts rather than settles.

Instead · 2

caraway

half as much

What it gets you
The closest thing to cumin's actual smell that a normal cupboard holds.
What it costs you
A sweet anise edge that belongs to rye bread and sauerkraut, and it is stronger than cumin so it takes over quickly.

Instead · 3

chili powder or taco seasoning

twice as much

What it gets you
Cumin, because cumin is most of what is in the jar, plus the paprika and oregano that usually go with it.
What it costs you
Control. You are also adding salt, heat and garlic powder, so season the dish afterward rather than before.

Where you can just leave it out · 17

These dishes list cumin 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 · 8

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