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 · 18 dishes here use it

Out of tahini

Sesame paste that behaves like a fat and an emulsifier at once. It seizes and goes stiff when water first hits it, then loosens into cream if you keep going — stopping at the seize is the mistake.

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

What to reach for

Instead · 1

any smooth nut butter, thinned

one for one, with a little extra water

What it gets you
The emulsifying paste that turns lemon and water into a sauce.
What it costs you
The bitterness, which is structural. Almond and cashew are sweeter and the sauce goes flat without extra lemon.

Instead · 2

greek yogurt with a spoon of toasted sesame oil

half a cup of yogurt and a teaspoon of oil per quarter cup

What it gets you
A creamy, sesame-scented sauce with acid built in.
What it costs you
It is dairy now, and it will not hold up in a hot dressing.

Instead · 3

sunflower seed butter

one for one

What it gets you
The closest match — a seed paste with the same bitterness and the same seizing behavior.
What it costs you
Very little, and it is the cheaper jar.

Where you can just leave it out · 2

These dishes list tahini 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 · 9

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