I gave this recipe three stars, because I made some changes to it. In my family and among my friends this is the basic sweet potato recipe without the lemon extract. I make it with the lemon extract on occasion and it is delicious. I just can't inagine a sweet potato pie with nutmeg and cinnamon, but that's me. The water isn't really necessary. I can't see what purpose it serves. You can use a little more milk, if you like and just eliminate the water. I bake my potatoes instead of boiling them and that way they're not soupy or water logged. A pound of potatoes is about 2 cups, mashed. so you cna weigh them to have the right amount. I always use frozen deep dish pie shells and I get two pies out of this batter. Tip: Sweet potatoes are real stringy and I don't know many people that will use a seive or a food mill. Put your cooked potatoes in the bowl and use a paddle beater. The strings will attach to the beater (actually any kind of beaters) and you can rinse them off. Do that about three times. That way your pies won't have all those strings in them. I hate that!