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 · 10 dishes here use it

Out of gochujang

Fermented chili paste with real sweetness and salt behind the heat, so it seasons three ways at once. Thin it before it goes in or it sits in lumps.

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

1 of the 10 dishes here that mention gochujang list it as optional — 10% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

miso plus chili flakes and a little honey

two parts miso, half a part flakes, half a part honey

What it gets you
The three things gochujang is: fermented soybean, chili, sugar.
What it costs you
The specific sweetness of glutinous rice, and the color.

Instead · 2

harissa plus a spoon of honey

one for one on the harissa, a teaspoon of honey per tablespoon

What it gets you
A thick, red, sweet-hot paste that glazes and marinates identically.
What it costs you
The ferment, replaced by caraway and cumin, which sends the dish north African.

Instead · 3

sriracha plus miso

equal parts

What it gets you
Heat, sweetness and fermented depth from two things many kitchens already have.
What it costs you
Body. This is thinner, so a glaze will not cling as well.

Where you can just leave it out · 1

These dishes list gochujang 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 · 1

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