Classic Macaroni Salad Recipe
If you’re looking for a macaroni salad recipe you’ll return to year after year, this is it. Creamy but not gloppy, sweet, savory, tangy and oh-so refreshing.
It’s been passed along in my family for years and is always the first plate emptied at cookouts.
How to Make Classic Macaroni Salad
- Dice the Vegetables Small
Chop the celery, pepper, carrot and onion into nice, even, small pieces. It’s tedious, I know, but trust me when I say it’s worth it.
Uniformly diced veggies make for consistent, well-balanced bites.
Once the onion has had a bath, drain, shake off excess water and stir it into the other vegetables. Set aside.
- Whisk the Dressing Until Smooth
Whisk together mayonnaise, sugar, white vinegar and sweetened condensed milk until smooth and homogeneous. Taste the dressing.
It should seem stronger than you’d like – pasta tends to mute the flavor of dressings and balance is key.
- Pour the Dressing Over Cooled Pasta and Vegetables
Once the macaroni has cooled, add vegetables and the dressing and stir to combine. Taste again and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Stir, Cover, and Chill at Least Two Hours
Cover the macaroni salad and chill for at least 2 hours. Taste again just before serving and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Serve and enjoy.
Seven Things That Keep This Macaroni Salad From Going Sideways
- Sweetened condensed milk – The combo of mayonnaise, white vinegar and sweetened condensed milk takes this macaroni salad over the top. The milk balances out the mayo and vinegar and rounds out the flavor of sugar.
- Bathed onion – Soaking the diced onion in cold water tames its bite. It’s a trick I’ve stolen from chefs and it’s brilliant.
- Balanced flavors – This recipe is an exercise in achieving a balance of flavors – creamy, sweet, savory, tangy.
- Chilling time – Macaroni salad improves with time. Resist temptation and wait at least two hours before serving. I prefer overnight.
- Final tweak – Pasta salads vary depending on brands of ingredients used and environmental conditions, like heat and humidity. Taste before serving and adjust with mayo, sugar, white vinegar, salt, etc. if necessary.
Let the Pasta Cool Completely Before Mixing
Salting your pasta water generously is important since it’s the only time the pasta itself will be seasoned. Skip this step and the salad will be bland no matter how delicious your dressing is.
Once cooked, rinse well with cold water. Rinsing halts the cooking and washes off excess starch.
Let the pasta get to at least room temperature, or better yet chill and add cold out of the fridge. Hot pasta will drink up all that yummy dressing, only to be a tad dried out once it’s chilled.
Cut Everything Small
This is important since it will discourage large pieces that will annoyingly make their way into your perfect bite.
Taste Before Serving, Not Just Before Chilling
Once macaroni salad sits it can lose its zing, the tang becomes a tad on the bland side. Taste and season before serving.
Make It the Day Before When You Can
Pasta salad actually tastes better the next day. Great for cookouts when time is of the essence.
Refresh With a Little Mayo if It Dries Out
Sometimes after sitting in the fridge, a pasta salad will seem a tad on the dried out side. Stir in a tablespoon or two of mayo to give it a lift.
Six Ways We’ve Switched This Macaroni Salad Up
- We’ve mixed in a couple of hard boiled eggs, chopped up. It reminds us of those from the deli counter and adds a little more heft and protein to the dish.
- Red peppers or orange peppers are sweeter and less pungent than green. We’ve substituted those when the recipe calls for green.
- A tablespoon of yellow mustard adds a little color and flavor. It’s not pronounced, just noticeable.
- We’ve made this with apple cider vinegar and found it to be fruitier, not as sharp, but equally as delicious.
- A couple of tablespoons of finely diced dill pickles or sweet pickle relish lends some zip to the salad and balances out the sweet.
- Carrots can be doubled. They lend some sweetness and color and are welcomed additions.
Three Tools That Make This Macaroni Salad Ten Minutes Faster
A sharp paring knife will save you lots of time.
A Pull-String Vegetable Chopper
While a quality paring knife will have you cutting up the veggies in a flash (a quality paring knife should be able to carve celery, peppers, and even onions quickly and accurately, and if yours is struggling or tearing through these veggies it’s time for a trip to the knife sharpener), I recommend picking up a pull-string vegetable chopper to make short work of the dicing process. Not only does it make all of the veggies uniform sizes, it takes mere seconds and saves me from tearing up each time I prep an onion.
A Large Mixing Bowl With a Lid
This one’s a no-brainer, but a large enough bowl for mixing and storing means one less dish in the sink.
How Long It Keeps and Why Day Two Tastes Better
This recipe will keep for three to five days in the refrigerator in a lidded container. You can easily make this recipe 24 hours ahead of time and find that it actually tastes better the next day.
However, after a couple of days you may find the salad looking a little dry, as the pasta tends to soak up the dressing. Give the salad a stir and add 1-2 Tbsp more mayo if needed.
Making It Ahead
You can make it up to 24 hours ahead of time, and it’ll taste better. If you’re making it further ahead of time, leave out some of the dressing and add it a couple of hours before serving, because otherwise, the macaroni salad may look a little dry.
Why You Shouldn’t Freeze It
You should never freeze this recipe. Freezing and thawing macaroni salad would cause the dressing to completely separate and ruin the texture of the pasta.
Make only as much as you know you’ll be able to enjoy within five days.
Serving Cold From the Fridge
Once you’ve given the recipe a final stir and tasted for seasoning, macaroni salad is best enjoyed straight from the fridge. If you’ll be at a cookout and the macaroni salad will be out for more than 2 hours, consider setting the bowl on ice or serving it in smaller batches straight from the fridge.
Macaroni Salad Questions People Keep Asking
Why does macaroni salad taste less seasoned straight from the fridge?
Pasta soaks up the tangy seasoning during chilling, so add salt and pepper if needed!
Can I use other types of pasta besides elbow macaroni?
Elbow macaroni is a tradition in macaroni salad for two reasons: the shape of the pasta allows the dressing to adhere to the pasta, and its size is well-proportioned to the veggies. However, you can use other kinds of short pasta like rotini, ditalini, or small shells.
Long pastas like spaghetti and linguine won’t work well, and large pastas (think rigatoni) may overwhelm the veggies.
Why should I rinse the macaroni?
Rinsing the macaroni will stop it from continuing to cook after it’s removed from the pot and help it maintain its texture once chilled. It will also remove excess starch from the surface of the pasta and keep the mayo from becoming gluey and thick.
In general, you wouldn’t rinse pasta when preparing a hot dish because the starch helps the sauce adhere to the pasta. For a chilled dish, however, like macaroni salad, rinsing the pasta is a must.
Why does the recipe call for both sugar and sweetened condensed milk?
Mayo and sugar are the basis of classic macaroni salad dressing. Using sweetened condensed milk in addition to the sugar gives the macaroni salad dressing a creamier, silkier texture.
The sweetness of the condensed milk is less harsh and obtrusive than granulated sugar and the dressing will not separate or become watery once chilled. If you’re not crazy about a sweet macaroni salad, reduce the amount of sugar to 2 Tbs and the condensed milk to ¼ cup.
Why does it take so long to chill?
Pasta salad does take time to meld flavors and textures. Chilling is critical since the pasta will continue to absorb the dressing.
Make sure to allow the pasta to cool before adding the dressing to minimize absorption. Follow the recipe and hold back some of the dressing to add just before serving.
That way you’ll never run into problems with a dry pasta salad. You can always stir in a little mayo if your salad sits overnight.
Once the salad has chilled, taste and adjust seasoning by adding another pinch of salt, spoonful of mayo or splash of vinegar.
Isn’t macaroni salad supposed to be savory?
Deli-style macaroni salad, like this recipe, leans toward the sweet side, but you can decrease the amount of sugar in the recipe if you prefer a more savory salad.
Sweet and tangy Classic Macaroni Salad is one of those dishes you HAVE to have at your next cookout or get-together. Made with elbow macaroni and simple pantry staples.
If you soak the diced onion in cold water for 10 minutes the salad will have a milder taste.
What to Grill Alongside It
Any meat. Especially ones with charred edges.
This is a cookout classic for good reason: That creamy, sweet dressing cuts right through spicy or smoky grilled foods. Burgers and brats get along perfectly with it, as do pulled pork, ribs, or grilled chicken thighs.
This salad contains mayo. As such, it’s good on the counter for up to 2 hours, and only an hour if it’s hotter than 90 degrees out.
If you’re concerned, set the bowl on a bigger bowl filled with ice and it’ll stay nippy all afternoon.
Graduation Party Math: How Much to Make
As a side dish at a cookout, I’d estimate a half-cup serving. As it happens, we had a graduation party, an open house in May, recently, so we made this recipe and used up the ingredients.
We tripled it.
Add a Protein and Call It Lunch
The best kind of leftover is one that becomes a brand-new dish the next day. Mix in a can of drained tuna or a cup of diced ham, or cubed cheddar if you’re feeling naughty, and dinner becomes lunch.
Getting It to the Cookout Still Cold
Make it ahead; overnight is best for this recipe, as it develops some serious flavor in the refrigerator. But if you notice the dressing has dried up a little, stir in a tablespoon or two of fresh mayo right before serving.
To save myself some dishes and keep the salad as close to refrigerator temp as possible, I make it right in its transport container, cover, chill, and take along like so:
Bonus tip for summer: Keep it in the (air-conditioned) car. Your car’s hot July trunk will undo two hours of refrigeration in fifteen.
More Cookout Classics:
Classic Macaroni Salad
Equipment
- Large pot
- Large mixing bowl
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 16 ounces elbow macaroni
- 1 green pepper diced small
- 10 small carrots or 1 large carrot, shredded or finely diced
- 1/2 medium onion finely diced
- 1/2 cup celery diced small
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add elbow macaroni and cook until fully tender, 1 to 2 minutes past al dente.
- Drain the pasta and rinse under cold running water until completely cooled. Shake off excess water.
- Dice the celery, green pepper, carrot, and onion into small pieces. Soak the onion in cold water for 10 minutes first if you want a milder flavor.
- Whisk together mayonnaise, white vinegar, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk until smooth.
- Add the cooled pasta and vegetables to a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the top and stir until evenly coated.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Stir before serving and adjust with a little mayo or salt if needed.