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 · 13 dishes here use it

Out of tequila

Agave, which brings a vegetal, peppery edge no other spirit has. Blanco keeps that edge sharp; reposado sands it down with oak. Anything not labeled one hundred percent agave is sugar wearing a costume.

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

mezcal

one for one

What it gets you
The same agave spirit in the same drink, with smoke behind it.
What it costs you
Nothing, if smoke is welcome. Everything, if it is not.

Instead · 2

white rum

one for one

What it gets you
An unaged spirit that handles lime and sugar the same way — a daiquiri and a margarita are the same drink.
What it costs you
The vegetal, peppery agave note, replaced by sugarcane sweetness.

Instead · 3

gin

one for one

What it gets you
A dry, aromatic, unaged spirit that stands up to citrus.
What it costs you
It goes piney where tequila goes green. In a paloma it works; in a margarita it does not.

Where the swap will be tasted · 12

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