Name: Sweet Potato and Pecan Gratin
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 2 cups Heavy Cream; 1 cup Whole Milk; 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt; ½ teaspoons Freshly Ground Black Pepper; 1-½ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese; 2 teaspoons Chopped Thyme Leaves; 3 pounds Sweet Potatoes, Peeled And Thinly Sliced; 1-½ cup Chopped Pecans; 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar; ¼ cups All-purpose Flour; 2 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour; ¾ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon; ¼ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg; 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted

Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sweet potato + pecanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Thyme + sweet potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together192 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Pepper + sweet potatotop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, pepper, parmesan cheese, thyme, sweet potato, sugar):

Beansfits better
Chestnutfits better
Chickpeafits better
Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, pepper, parmesan cheese, thyme, sweet potato, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pecans	1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)	196
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Sweet Potato and Pecan Gratin