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 · 38 dishes here use it

Out of hot sauce

Acid as much as heat, which is why it lifts a dish that already has chili in it. Vinegar-based sauces season, fermented ones add depth, and they are not interchangeable.

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

61% of the 38 dishes here that mention hot sauce already list it as optional. Before you look for a replacement, check whether you are in one of them.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

chili flakes bloomed in a little vinegar

a quarter teaspoon of flakes in a teaspoon of vinegar per teaspoon of sauce

What it gets you
The two things hot sauce is: heat and acid.
What it costs you
The ferment. Most bottled sauces are fermented and that depth is not reproducible in two minutes.

Instead · 2

gochujang or harissa thinned with water

a teaspoon of paste in a teaspoon of water per teaspoon of sauce

What it gets you
Heat with body and savory depth behind it, which improves a marinade.
What it costs you
Sharpness. Pastes are thick and sweet where hot sauce is thin and sour.

Instead · 3

cayenne plus a squeeze of lemon

a pinch of cayenne and a teaspoon of juice

What it gets you
The heat and the brightness from two things everyone has.
What it costs you
Any complexity at all, and it will not cling to a wing.

Where you can just leave it out · 23

These dishes list hot sauce 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 · 8

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