Musubi Makers
Other Hawaiian dishes

Hawaiian mac salad

Soft elbow macaroni in a creamy, mayo-forward dressing, served cold. It is the scoop that turns two plates of food into a plate lunch, and it is a little different from the mac salad you might know.

soft, creamy, cold from the fridge

What it is

Hawaiian mac salad is elbow macaroni cooked past al dente on purpose, so it is soft, then dressed heavy with mayonnaise, a splash of milk, a little vinegar, and some grated carrot and onion. That is pretty much it. It is mild, creamy, and cold, meant to sit quietly next to a strong protein, not to compete with it. No sweet relish, no crunch.

A short history

Mac salad is pure plate lunch. On the plantations, workers from Japan, China, the Philippines, Portugal, and Hawaii itself ate lunch side by side, and the plate lunch grew out of that mixing: two scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and a meat. Mac salad became the constant, the side that shows up no matter what the protein is. The island version leans soft and creamy where mainland ones lean firm and tangy, and locals will tell you soft is the whole point.

How to make it at home

The trick is to dress it while the noodles are still a little warm so they drink up the dressing, and to make it wetter than looks right. It firms up in the fridge.

Hawaiian mac salad

Serves 6 as a side

You need

  • 1 lb elbow macaroni
  • 1.5 to 2 cups mayonnaise (the real stuff, like Best Foods)
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 2 tbsp grated or minced onion
  • Salt and black pepper

Steps

  1. Boil the macaroni a couple minutes past the package time, so it is soft. Drain and let it cool just until warm.
  2. Toss the warm noodles with the vinegar and a little salt so it soaks in.
  3. Fold in the mayo, milk, carrot, and onion. It should look a little too wet. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Chill at least a couple hours. Stir before serving, and add a spoonful more mayo if it dried out.

Why island mac salad is soft

Mainland macaroni salad is usually firm noodles, lots of crunchy add-ins, and a tangy dressing. Island mac salad is the opposite on every count, and the softness is not laziness. It is the whole design.

Cook the macaroni past al dente, a good two or three minutes beyond the box time. You want it fully soft. Firm noodles stay separate and the salad ends up tasting like pasta with mayonnaise on it instead of one creamy thing.

Dress it warm. Drain the macaroni, and while it is still hot, stir in the vinegar and let it sit a minute, then the mayonnaise. Warm noodles are still open and they pull the dressing in. Cold noodles just wear it.

Make it look too wet. This is the instruction people ignore and then wonder why their mac salad came out dry. It should look soupy when you put it in the fridge. The macaroni keeps absorbing dressing for hours, and what looks correct at mixing time will be pasty by dinner. If it does dry out overnight, stir in a few spoonfuls of milk or mayo before serving.

Give it time. Two hours in the fridge minimum, overnight is better. It needs to go properly cold and let the flavors settle.

The mayonnaise question

People in Hawaii have opinions about this and I am one of them. It is Best Foods, which is the same product sold as Hellmann's east of the Rockies. It is what nearly every plate lunch place uses and what most families keep in the fridge.

The reason is that it is eggy and rich without much sugar or tang. Miracle Whip is sweet and sharp and will make the salad taste wrong in a way you cannot fix. Olive oil mayo and light mayo both bring flavors that fight the dish. Japanese Kewpie mayo is delicious but noticeably tangier and more savory, so it makes a good salad that is not quite this salad.

Use more than feels reasonable. This is a rich, mayo-forward side by definition. If you are trying to make a light macaroni salad, you are making a different dish, and that is fine, it just is not the one that goes next to kalua pork.

What goes in, and what stays out

The base is macaroni, mayo, milk, vinegar, grated carrot, and grated or minced onion. Salt and plenty of black pepper. That is the standard and it is deliberately plain.

Common additions that stay true to it: a little grated sweet onion instead of yellow, a spoonful of the potato-mac version where boiled potato chunks go in alongside the noodles, canned tuna for a light meal, or a grated hard-boiled egg stirred through. Potato mac is its own beloved variation and shows up on plenty of plates.

Things that push it away from island style: sweet pickle relish, diced celery, bell pepper, mustard, sugar, dill, and anything that adds crunch. The salad is supposed to be the soft, cool, quiet part of the plate. It is there to balance salty pork and fried things, not to be interesting on its own.

Questions I get

How far ahead can I make it?
A day ahead is ideal. It holds three or four days in the fridge, though it stiffens as it sits, so loosen it with a splash of milk.
Can I freeze it?
No. Mayonnaise splits when it thaws and the texture never comes back.
Why is mine dry?
Almost always one of three things: the noodles were undercooked, the dressing went on cold, or there was not enough of it. Stir in more mayo with a little milk and it will recover.
Do I rinse the macaroni?
No. Rinsing cools the noodles and washes off the surface starch that helps the dressing cling. Drain and dress straight away.

This is the side for kalua pork or chicken katsu. See the rest of the Hawaiian favorites.

Where I read up on this