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 · 64 dishes here use it

Out of mint

Loud, cooling, and easily wrecked. Bruise it, do not shred it — a knife blackens the edges and gives you a grassy note instead of a clean one.

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

56% of the 64 dishes here that mention mint 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

basil

one for one

What it gets you
A soft, sweet herb that bruises the same way and goes in at the same moment.
What it costs you
The cold. Mint has a menthol chill nothing else in the herb drawer has, and a mojito made with basil is a good drink with the wrong name.

Instead · 2

shiso or Thai basil

one for one

What it gets you
Closer than sweet basil does, because both carry a cooling anise edge in the same register.
What it costs you
Availability, mostly, and Thai basil is more licorice than mint would ever be.

What none of them do

There is no swap for mint in a julep or a mojito. Those drinks are mint with alcohol in them, and every other herb makes a different drink that should be given a different name.

Where you can just leave it out · 36

These dishes list mint as optional. They were written to work without it, so no ratio is needed and nothing has to be bought.

Showing 30 of 36. The rest are on the ingredient page.

Where the swap will be tasted · 17

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