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 · 8 dishes here use it

Out of shallot

Onion flavor with less water and more perfume, so it works raw where an onion would shout. Sliced thin into vinegar for ten minutes it loses its bite and keeps everything else.

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 8 dishes here that mention shallot list it as optional — 25% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

onion, cut small

a quarter of a medium onion per shallot

What it gets you
The same allium base, and in a cooked dish nobody would call it.
What it costs you
Fineness and sweetness. Onion is sharper raw, so a vinaigrette wants it soaked in the vinegar for ten minutes first.

Instead · 2

the white part of a scallion or a leek

two scallions or half a leek per shallot

What it gets you
A mild allium that softens fast and does not dominate.
What it costs you
The depth. Shallot has a sweetness that survives browning and neither of these does.

Instead · 3

fried shallots from a jar, for a garnish

a tablespoon per shallot

What it gets you
The crisp sweet allium finish that a fried shallot provides, without frying anything.
What it costs you
Any cooked use.

Where you can just leave it out · 2

These dishes list shallot 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 · 3

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