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 · 13 dishes here use it

Out of mezcal

Smoke over the same agave backbone, and it does not blend so much as lead. A quarter-ounce swapped into a drink built for tequila changes the whole thing, which is usually the point.

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

What to reach for

Instead · 1

blanco tequila

one for one

What it gets you
The same agave spirit at the same proof in the same drinks.
What it costs you
The smoke, which is the reason anyone reached for mezcal.

Instead · 2

tequila with a few drops of a peated scotch

one for one, with a quarter teaspoon of scotch

What it gets you
Agave and smoke together, which is closer than it has any right to be.
What it costs you
The specific earthiness of roasted agave, replaced by peat.

Instead · 3

a smoky scotch or a rested rum, on its own

one for one

What it gets you
Smoke, in a drink built for it.
What it costs you
The agave entirely. This is a different cocktail with the same bones.

Where the swap will be tasted · 13

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