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 · 42 dishes here use it

Out of shrimp

Cooks in about two minutes and is ruined in three. Get everything else finished first, then put them in — the moment they curve into a C they are done, and a tight O means you are late.

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

5 of the 42 dishes here that mention shrimp list it as optional — 12% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

scallops, halved if they are large

one for one by weight

What it gets you
The same fast sear, the same sweetness, the same one-minute-a-side discipline.
What it costs you
Money, and scallops are less forgiving — thirty seconds too long and they go rubbery.

Instead · 2

firm white fish, cut into chunks

one for one by weight

What it gets you
Something that cooks in the same window and takes the same sauces.
What it costs you
The snap. Shrimp has a bite that fish does not, and it holds its shape in a stew where fish flakes apart.

Instead · 3

king oyster mushrooms, scored and seared

one for one by weight

What it gets you
A convincing chew and a good sear, which is more than most seafood substitutes manage.
What it costs you
The sweetness and the sea. Add a little seaweed or a splash of fish sauce if that is not a problem.

Where you can just leave it out · 5

These dishes list shrimp 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 shrimp 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 shrimp 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 shrimpRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions