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 · 56 dishes here use it

Out of milk

Softness and a little sweetness. It scorches on the bottom of a pan faster than anything else here, so it wants gentle heat and something moving in it.

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

5 of the 56 dishes here that mention milk list it as optional — 9% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

any unsweetened plant milk — oat, soy, almond

one for one

What it gets you
The liquid and most of the body. Oat is the closest in a sauce, soy is the closest in a bake because it has protein.
What it costs you
Fat and the way milk proteins brown. Almond milk in particular makes a pale, thin bechamel.
Not here
Anything that has to be curdled on purpose or set with heat.

Instead · 2

cream cut with water

one part cream to two of water

What it gets you
Whole milk, essentially, and slightly better than the carton version for a sauce.
What it costs you
Nothing. This is what milk is.

Instead · 3

evaporated milk diluted, or powdered milk mixed

one to one with water for evaporated; as the package says for powdered

What it gets you
Real dairy from the cupboard, which matters in a custard or a bread dough where the proteins do work.
What it costs you
Evaporated milk is cooked and tastes it — faintly caramel, which is fine in a dessert and odd in a savory sauce.

Where you can just leave it out · 5

These dishes list milk 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 · 29

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