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 · 14 dishes here use it

Out of fennel

Anise, and it moves a long way with cooking. Raw and thin-sliced it is crisp and sharply licorice; roasted or braised it goes sweet, soft and barely recognizable.

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

celery plus a pinch of crushed fennel seed

one stalk per quarter bulb, an eighth teaspoon of seed

What it gets you
The crunch and the anise together, built from two common things.
What it costs you
The sweetness that fennel gets when it is roasted or braised, which celery never develops.

Instead · 2

leek, for cooked dishes

one large leek per bulb

What it gets you
A sweet allium that goes soft and silky in the same braises and gratins.
What it costs you
The anise entirely, and any raw use.

Instead · 3

green apple, for a raw salad

one apple per half bulb

What it gets you
Cold, sweet crunch that sits in the same salads with the same dressing.
What it costs you
The aromatic. This is texture only, so a pinch of fennel seed is worth adding.

Where the swap will be tasted · 10

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