For A Better Macaroni Salad, Try Making It Hawaiian Style

Hawaiian macaroni salad isn't your typical macaroni salad — it's better. Also known as mac salad, the side dish is a staple of Hawaiian plate lunches and a favorite of locals. It's so popular, in fact, that beloved Hawaiian chain Zippy's makes 46,000 pounds of the stuff each month. Unlike regular macaroni salad, Hawaiian mac salad doesn't use mustard, and many recipes don't use vinegar (though some say it's better with it and gives it a necessary tang). What it does use, however, is a whole bunch of mayonnaise — and it absolutely must be either Best Foods or Hellmann's brand mayonnaise.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of the dish, however, is the fact that you're actually supposed to overcook the elbow pasta by boiling it for an extra three to four minutes. This gets the pasta to an ideal texture for soaking up the mayonnaise (and is a "mistake" that should be used when making any pasta salad). Once overcooked, you'll add all of the other ingredients: shredded carrots, onions, milk, sugar, and, depending who you ask, apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar. It's a simple dish, which is exactly how it's meant to be. That said, adding in a few extra (approved) ingredients is also okay — we're talking potatoes, extra onions, or celery. 

Turning a typical macaroni salad into a Hawaiian-style macaroni salad is pretty simple — you'll just be using a few extra ingredients (and a lot of extra mayonnaise). And while it's a favorite in Hawaii, Hawaiian-style macaroni salad isn't actually a Hawaiian dish. Pasta and mayonnaise are more European ingredients — so how did this dish become so popular in Hawaii?

There are a few different possible origin stories. One theory centers around the fact that, in the early 1900s, chefs came to Hawaii from Europe to work in hotel restaurants, to support the tourism industry. They brought with them potato salad recipes, which became popular. This led to people wanting to make it at home, and replacing potatoes with a cheaper ingredient: macaroni.

Another possibility is that macaroni salad in Hawaii was a result of sugar and pineapple plantations. The managers of these places were European, thus the love for potato salad — but the workers were mostly Asian, and eventually turned the potato salads into macaroni salads, with their ingredients of choice. Besides being cheaper, macaroni pasta is nonperishable, and holds up better in the humidity. Swapping out potatoes was another way of simplifying the dish and saving money.