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 · 118 dishes here use it

Out of honey

Sweetness with a floral edge and enough body to change the texture of what it is in. It seizes when it hits cold liquid, which is why a drink wants it thinned with warm water first.

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

25 of the 118 dishes here that mention honey list it as optional — 21% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

maple syrup

one for one

What it gets you
The same sweetness and the same pourable body, and it dissolves in cold liquid just as readily.
What it costs you
Honey's floral top note, replaced by maple's caramel one. In a dressing nobody minds; in a tea somebody will.

Instead · 2

sugar dissolved in a little hot water

a heaping tablespoon of sugar in two teaspoons of water per tablespoon of honey

What it gets you
The sweetness and roughly the viscosity, which is what a glaze and a cocktail both actually need.
What it costs you
All the flavor, and honey's hygroscopy — baked goods made with it will stale faster.

Instead · 3

agave or golden syrup

three quarters as much for agave, one for one for golden syrup

What it gets you
A neutral liquid sweetener that behaves like honey in every mechanical way.
What it costs you
Agave is sweeter than it tastes, which is how a dressing ends up cloying before anyone notices.

Where you can just leave it out · 25

These dishes list honey 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 · 80

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

Showing the 30 shortest of 80.

Check what else is in the pan

The company honey 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 honeyRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions