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 · 247 dishes here use it

Out of garlic

Burns in seconds and turns the whole dish bitter, so it almost never goes in first. Sliced is mild and sweet, crushed is loud, and grated raw into a dressing is louder than either.

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

23 of the 247 dishes here that mention garlic list it as optional — 9% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

garlic powder

a quarter teaspoon for one clove

What it gets you
More than people admit. In a braise, a rub or anything with a long cook, it is close enough that nobody would call it.
What it costs you
Everything sharp. Powder is the cooked note without the raw one, so it cannot do a dressing, an aioli or the last thirty seconds of a pan sauce.

Instead · 2

shallot, minced fine

one small shallot for two cloves

What it gets you
A savory allium backbone, and in a vinaigrette it is arguably the better ingredient.
What it costs you
The heat and the smell that make garlic recognizable. This is a substitution the dish will notice.

Instead · 3

a spoon of jarred garlic paste or black garlic

a teaspoon per two cloves for paste; half that for black garlic

What it gets you
Depth immediately, and black garlic brings a sweetness that suits a braise or a dressing.
What it costs you
Paste is duller and often carries acid from the jar. Black garlic is a different flavor wearing the same name.
Not here
Anything where garlic is meant to be sharp — aglio e olio is not going to survive this.

Where you can just leave it out · 23

These dishes list garlic 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 · 50

These need it and are short enough that nothing hides: 4 required ingredients or fewer, which makes garlic a quarter of what is in the pan. Make the swap a decision rather than a repair.

Showing the 30 shortest of 50.

Check what else is in the pan

The company garlic 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 garlicRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions