Get the recipe for Sweet Potato Gratin with Vanilla Bean and Bay Leaves.

I grew up in a house with a five-bite rule: You weren’t leaving the dinner table until you got down at least five mouthfuls of what was served, be it fried chicken livers, overcooked carrot coins or slabs of beef tongue. I’d like to say it helped make me the cook I am today, but it also left long-standing grudges.

For example, I can’t stand marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole, that warhorse of the Thanksgiving table. Convention suggests that covering a sweet tuber in a blanket of sugar makes it appealing to children, but the combo made me gag. Couldn’t stand it. There were several Thanksgivings where I was at the dinner table long after everyone had moved on to dessert. (My parents finally gave up and I was given a pass.)

It was 20 years later that I learned sweet potato casserole didn’t have to be such a saccharine affair. I was cooking professionally and the sous chef I worked for created a gratin of smoothly whipped sweet potatoes and heavy cream infused with bay leaves, black pepper and—here’s the kicker—vanilla bean. He broiled the creamy puree with a dusting of raw sugar until a brittle, brûléed crust formed. The nuanced flavors and creamy texture were reminiscent of the sticky classic, but subtle and sophisticated—the black pepper cutting the sweetness, the bay and vanilla rounding out the tuber’s earthiness.

Grown-up and adult, it was nothing like the sticky kid’s stuff I had done my best to forget. I’ve made this version of sweet potato casserole every holiday season since that introduction, forever indebted to Craig (who also taught me to appreciate Richard Olney, Cy Twombly and Pilsner Urquell). My family demands it and my friends beg me to bring it to any potluck—thankfully, it’s make-ahead perfect and travels well.

Of note, it’s worth splurging for a fresh vanilla bean—extract alone won’t cut it—and use good quality, fresh-ground black pepper (I particularly like Indonesian Sarawak or Muntok here, which packs more floral flavor than peppery punch).

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Matthew Card

Matthew Card is Milk Street’s Creative Director for Recipes and Products, resident coffee geek, knife collector and equipment junkie. He has 25-plus years of professional cooking, recipe development, food writing and teaching under his belt. When he’s not in the Milk Street kitchen or on the road hunting for new recipes and ideas, Matthew lives with his family in Canberra, Australia, where he does his best to dodge kangaroos on his mountain bike and is learning to love Vegemite.