For The Most Flavorful Macaroni Salad, Make It Southern-Style

If your only experience with macaroni salad is a bland mush of cold pasta and mayonnaise that comes in a plastic tub from your local supermarket, it's time to broaden your horizons. Those who've enjoyed a cookout or potluck down South will know better already, but everyone else should acquaint themselves with the distinctive and flavorful pleasures of a Southern-style macaroni salad.

No matter the regional variation, macaroni salad is the product of the American melting pot, as it prepares Italian pasta in a manner more similar to German-style potato salads. Recipes for macaroni salad began to appear in the early 20th century, and the South would soon embrace and refine the dish — so fortunately, even if you're unfamiliar with Southern-style macaroni salad, if you've ever put together a potato salad, many of the techniques and typical ingredients will already be familiar to you.

Unlike Hawaiian-style macaroni salad, which is traditionally a little sweet due to the inclusion of either sugar or sweetened condensed milk, the Southern version tends to incorporate bolder, even spicy flavors, often comprising of well-cooked (rather than al dente, a state pasta should only be cooked to under certain circumstances) macaroni, which once cooled is combined with diced celery, onions, bell peppers, and hard-boiled eggs, pickles, plus mayonnaise, sweet relish, apple cider vinegar, and mustard. Not all of these need to be included, however, and other additions may be made — for example, a Cajun macaroni salad could also include cayenne pepper and hot sauce. Southern macaroni salad is one of those versatile, every-family-has-their-own-recipe dishes that are largely distinguished by a few commonalities. After mixing, refrigerate the salad immediately, as this will help the flavors blend and deepen.

As macaroni salad is usually a side dish, when considering which recipe to go for or what ingredients to use, think about what other foods you'll be serving it with. Be sure they pair well while also avoiding overly similar flavors and textures (it's up to you, but preparing separate batches of both macaroni and potato salad might be a little repetitive, unless you have some picky guests divided over which they prefer). Macaroni salad can help cut through meaty, smoky, or heavily spiced hot foods and provides a cool, creamy contrast to dishes like pulled pork, barbecue ribs, corn on the cob, or Southern collard greens. 

If you are putting together your macaroni salad for a cookout, picnic, or some other outdoor activity during hot and balmy weather, remember to bear food safety in mind. The U.S. Department of Agriculture advises that, in order to avoid foodborne illness, perishable cold salads — particularly those containing mayonnaise or eggs — should not be left in what it calls the "Danger Zone" (temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit) for too long. By all means, put your salad out for people to help themselves, but it should be returned to the refrigerator within two hours, or one hour if the temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit — though given how moreish Southern macaroni salad is, we wouldn't be surprised if the bowl is scraped clean long before that.