Butternet squash mac & cheese: Forensic analysis

Recently I made a recipe I've made multiple times before: butternut squash mac & cheese. It's a bit of a misnomer because the only cheese is 2 tablespoons of grated Gruyere on top, but it has the same texture as mac and cheese, with a butternut squash based sauce.

This is a recipe I know I like, and yet this round was really underwhelming. But why? I've struggled to figure that out. It is fine, it is edible, it just isn't good.

The best I've done is: it tastes watery. The pasta goes in a sauce of pureed butternut squash, stock, and milk, and I have a note in my book that says it will look entirely too wet to actually work, but to trust it. The amount of liquid you need, however, can vary with how wet your squash puree has ended up, and I didn't measure particularly carefully (though I thought in such a way as to end up with less liquid, not more); I also added kale for the first time and perhaps it added some water.

It could also be that I didn't have enough squash, or that the squash I had was on the bland side. The recipe calls for a whole squash and the conversion factor from that to precooked, mashed squash isn't terribly clear.

The experience has led me to add videos to my YouTube Cooking playlist aimed at learning how to taste. Previously I'd tried to find "cooking theory" videos - not cooking science, but recipe-agnostic methods for giving food good flavor and texture. This search dug up a few more of those as well as the tasting videos. (Now I just have to watch them.)

Meanwhile, I've been adding more cheese and Stonewall Kitchens' Spicy Corn Relish (a personal favorite) to make it more appealing. I'm not going to waste it, but I'm not going to make myself choke it down as-is, either!