Name: Solstice Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake
Ingredients: For crust; 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (from five 4 3/4- by 2 1/4-inch crackers); 1/2 cup pecans (1 3/4 oz), finely chopped; 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) marg, melted and cooled; For filling; 1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin; egg replacer = 3 eggs; 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar; 2 tablespoons soy creamer; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 1 tablespoon bourbon liqueur or bourbon (optional); 1/2 cup granulated sugar; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg; 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 3 (8-oz) packages Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, at room temperature; For topping; 2 cups Tofutti sour cream (20 oz); 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 tablespoon bourbon liqueur or bourbon (optional)

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Pecans + pumpkintop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together272 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Pumpkin + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,744 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham cracker crumbs: Form the base crust that holds the filling together.
Cream cheese: Gives the filling a dense, creamy, smooth body when beaten.
Pumpkin: Supplies moisture and the pumpkin flavor of the filling.
Egg replacer: Helps bind and set the filling as it bakes.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture with a caramel note.
Bourbon: Adds aroma and warm flavor to the filling and topping.

The step that matters

Bake until the center is just set. Overbaking causes the filling to crack, weep and turn grainy as proteins tighten too far. Pulling it when the center still jiggles lets residual heat finish setting it smoothly while it cools.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pumpkin, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger):

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Cashew nutfits better
Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pumpkin, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cracker	5 saltine crackers (15g)	66
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Pecan	1 half (4g)	20
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0
Topping	not in our table	0

Solstice Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake