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 · 11 dishes here use it

Out of rice vinegar

The gentlest acid on the shelf — sour without the harsh edge of wine vinegar, which is why it works in dressings that go on raw vegetables. Check the label; the seasoned kind is already sweetened.

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

2 of the 11 dishes here that mention rice vinegar list it as optional — 18% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

apple cider vinegar cut with a little water

three parts vinegar to one of water

What it gets you
A mild, slightly fruity acid at about the same strength.
What it costs you
The roundness, and cider vinegar leans apple in a dish that was leaning Japanese.

Instead · 2

white wine vinegar plus a pinch of sugar

one for one, a pinch of sugar per tablespoon

What it gets you
Close enough for a dressing, a pickle or a sushi rice.
What it costs you
Very little, once the sugar is in.

Instead · 3

lemon or lime juice

one for one

What it gets you
Bright acid for a dressing or a dipping sauce.
What it costs you
Keeping and neutrality. Citrus dulls overnight and it is more perfumed than rice vinegar.

Where you can just leave it out · 2

These dishes list rice vinegar 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 · 4

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