Macaroni Salad should not be sweet

You can’t just make such a provocative statement without sharing a recipe, Mary.

Thank you!!! I like mine vinegary.

I'm hungry.

[quote]Macaroni Salad should not be

Fixed.

In a world of potato salads, bean salads, corn salads...why would I ever want a macaroni salad?

No, just no.

I disagree.

OP, bless your heart.

I like my Macaroni salad and my Pizza Sauce how I like my men , slightly sweet but not too sweet.

I agree wholeheartedly OP. At my grocery store, it’s sweet. I have to go to a special place for vinegary salad.

How is that fixing anything, R4?

I HATE vinegary salad. Just a touch is enough. “Savory” is not mouth puckeringly sour.

Sweet relish is just wrong. It DOES NOT belong in tuna salad or on a burger.

The only sweet macaroni salad I tolerate is that one you see at picnics from the 50s with mandarin oranges and tiny pasta and cool whip.

It should be slightly sweet but not dessert sweet.

Perhaps a little sweet with pickle relish but no fucking canned fruit in it. Yuck!

I don't care for it myself but I love German potato salad, which is slightly sweet.

[quote] Macaroni Salad should not be sweet

Much like your life OP.

R14 German Potato Salad is more sour than sweet, and has nothing in the world to do with the excrescence known as Macaroni Salad. It doesn't have any mayo or Miracle Scheiss in it.

Why, OP, don' you jus' LOVE them bits of canned pineapple and cherries in your noodle salad? No?

How about sweet pickles? No sweet relish?

You are NOT a Methodist, are you, hon?

R17, I was brought up as a Methodist. We don't talk that way - not even in the South. I think you've confused us with Baptists.

I like macaroni salads with meat in them. Tuna, chicken, crab or shrimp are my favorites. The only one I use sweet pickle relish in it the tuna salad. It is a stronger flavored fish and the relish balances it.

And German Potato Salad is sweet & sour. It has both vinegar and sugar in it. They need to be balanced.

IMHO once you add a protein to a pasta salad it becomes chicken salad, tuna salad, shrimp salad etc. Macaroni salad is that bottom of the barrel deli salad that consists of elbow macaroni, pickle relish, a few veggies and maybe some shredded cheese - usually liberally doused in "salad dressing" (aka Miracle Whip). Yuck!

They made a really great looking one on a recent episode of America's Test Kitchen I saw. Of course it could have been an older episode that I just never saw before. I was thinking of trying it if I can find the recipe online. I'm not paying ATK to get it off their site.

How about tangy?

that may be r20, but without protein it's pretty blah.

R22, adding barbecue sauce and hot sauce to macaroni salad is a pretty common trick that peps it up quite a bit.

Here’s a treat for you OP.

You’ve just never tried my delicious macaroni salad with raisins and honey BBQ flavored mayonnaise, OP. Every time I bring it to the block party everyone says they are too scared to even try it because they’ll end up devouring the whole thing!

My mom used to make macaroni salad with tuna and peas. yummy

R11: There was no cool whip in the 50s.

Plenty of “pasta salads” without resorting to mayo or Miracle Whip. Google is your friend.

Macaroni, tuna, mayonnaise (not too much), celery, salt and pepper. That's it.

That Tuna Macaroni R27, not macaroni salad.

r30 it was cold and tasted like a souped up macaroni salad but I don't know what the proper name for it was

[quote]Plenty of “pasta salads” without resorting to mayo or Miracle Whip.

That's [italic]pasta[/italic] salad, r28. Not the same thing at all. When someone says "macaroni salad," I count on the presence of elbow macaroni and one or the other of those two white emulsions.

If I were to make a pasta salad, which hasn't happened in >20 years, it would probably be cavatappi—macaroni, yes, I know—or some stuffed pasta all'uovo, like tortelloni. It would get a vinaigrette. Never mayo. And FWIW, I have never owned a jar of Miracle Whip.

And the pasta should al dente.

Pasta, mandarin oranges, cherries and cool whip...

"One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just does not belong... "

Don’t stop, r20! I’m so close...

I’ve never understood the appeal. Why would anyone freely choose to eat cold pasta?

R36 - actually cold sesame noodles are delicious. But macaroni salad just is not.

I've never understood it. I always politely eat a couple of bites, but my mouth is never thanking me after.

I'm not a fan of it, but there are folks who eat cold lasagna as well as cold pizza as well.

[quote]How is that fixing anything, [R4]?

By exposing and grasping each macaroni elbow individually, isolating the spermatic cord and cutting or applying even tension on the cord until it breaks free, Rose!

Preaching to the choir.