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 · 18 dishes here use it

Out of lettuce

Structure and water, and it is worth being fussy about. Dry it properly or dressing slides off and pools, which is the single most common salad failure.

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 18 dishes here that mention lettuce list it as optional — 17% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

any other salad green — arugula, spinach, mizuna

one for one by volume

What it gets you
Leaves in a bowl, dressed the same way.
What it costs you
Crunch, mostly. Arugula is peppery and spinach is soft, so both want a firmer dressing and something crisp added.

Instead · 2

cabbage, sliced very thin

half the volume

What it gets you
Crunch that lasts, and a salad that can be dressed an hour ahead without collapsing.
What it costs you
Delicacy. This is a slaw, and it should be dressed like one.

Instead · 3

cucumber and celery, sliced

one for one by volume

What it gets you
Cold, wet crunch for a sandwich or a bowl.
What it costs you
The leaf, and the way a leaf carries dressing. This is a chopped salad now.

Where you can just leave it out · 3

These dishes list lettuce 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 · 2

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