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 · 3 dishes here use it

Out of mussels

They steam themselves in a couple of minutes and make their own sauce doing it. That liquid needs tasting before you salt anything — it arrives seasoned.

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

clams

one for one by weight

What it gets you
The same pan, the same wine, the same lid, the same shells opening.
What it costs you
A minute or two longer, and clams are brinier and less sweet.

Instead · 2

shrimp, shells on

half the weight

What it gets you
Shellfish sweetness in a broth built the same way.
What it costs you
The liquor. Mussels release their own seawater and shrimp do not, so the broth needs stock or clam juice.

Instead · 3

firm white fish plus a splash of clam juice

half the weight, a quarter cup of juice

What it gets you
Seafood in a broth with the brine added back deliberately.
What it costs you
The shells, and the eating with your hands.

Check what else is in the pan

The company mussels 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 musselsRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions