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 · 28 dishes here use it

Out of mushrooms

Water first, flavor second. Crowd the pan and they steam and stay squeaky; give them room and leave them alone and they brown and go meaty. Salt only after the browning starts.

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

4 of the 28 dishes here that mention mushrooms list it as optional — 14% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

dried mushrooms, soaked

an ounce dried per half pound fresh, and keep the soaking liquid

What it gets you
More flavor than fresh, and the soaking water is the best stock in the kitchen.
What it costs you
Texture and volume. Rehydrated mushrooms are chewy and there are fewer of them than the weight suggests.

Instead · 2

eggplant, cubed and browned hard

one medium eggplant per half pound

What it gets you
A soft, savory, sauce-absorbing chunk that browns well and reads as substantial.
What it costs you
The umami, which was the point. Add soy, miso or tomato paste to make up the gap.

Instead · 3

zucchini or celery, for bulk only

one for one

What it gets you
Vegetable volume in a stew or a filling, cooked in the same window.
What it costs you
Everything mushrooms were bringing. This is padding, and it should only be used when the mushroom was padding too.

Where you can just leave it out · 4

These dishes list mushrooms 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 · 7

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