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 · 57 dishes here use it

Out of flour

Thickener and structure. Raw flour tastes like paste, so it wants a minute of cooking in fat before liquid arrives — that minute is the difference between a sauce and a lumpy disappointment.

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 57 dishes here that mention flour list it as optional — 5% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

cornstarch, for thickening only

half as much

What it gets you
More thickening power than flour, faster, and a clearer sauce.
What it costs you
The toasted flavor of a roux, and the stability — a cornstarch sauce thins again if it boils hard or sits overnight.

Instead · 2

a cup-for-cup gluten free blend

one for one by weight

What it gets you
Most bakes, most of the time. These blends are built to behave.
What it costs you
Anything that needs gluten to stretch — bread, pasta, pizza. Those need a recipe, not a substitution.

Instead · 3

ground oats or almond flour, for dredging and coating

one for one

What it gets you
A surface for something to fry in, and almond flour browns beautifully.
What it costs you
Almond flour burns sooner and oats go soft rather than crisp, so the pan runs cooler and the result is softer.

Where you can just leave it out · 3

These dishes list flour 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 · 25

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