For Macaroni Salad Packed With Flavor, Reach For A Powerhouse Seasoning

While it might at first seem like a fairly ordinary side dish, macaroni salad can be made in all kinds of fun, tasty ways. Something as simple as a few chopped pickles can give your ordinary macaroni salad extra zing. You can even swap the typical elbow pasta with almost any other kind without running afoul of the picnic commission. And a generous sprinkling of one staple pantry seasoning can make even an easy, three-ingredient macaroni salad really pop: Old Bay.

While Old Bay Seasoning's precise combination of spices is shrouded in secrecy, we do know that the standard variety's whopping 18 ingredients include your everyday red and black pepper, celery salt, and the paprika that likely gives it its signature rust colored hue. It is, true to its nautical name, most commonly associated with seafood. But it's really a kitchen-sink sort of blend (also believed to include ingredients like mustard powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg) with plenty of applications beyond your favorite crustaceans. Most otherwise unadorned macaroni salads also make a terrific canvas for this vivacious seasoning.

Macaroni salad has a somewhat iconically mild flavor. Its most basic elements are its pretty plain pasta, mellow mayo, and maybe salt and pepper, if you're lucky. It only becomes a bit more interesting once you introduce (still fairly entry-level) mix-ins like carrots and celery, our other favorite upgrades notwithstanding. But that blank-ish slate is actually an exciting invitation to incorporate additional flavors exactly like Old Bay's.

Add the Old Bay before any other seasonings, including fresh herbs and even the seemingly innocuous salt and pepper, to avoid excessive salinity, heat, or other elements that will be present in your new secret macaroni salad weapon. You can rely on the classic quantity instruction "to taste" when figuring out how much Old Bay to add, though it should reasonably shake out to 1 or 2 teaspoons for every 2 cups of pasta. Start on the lighter end, stir to combine, and sample a little spoonful to see how much more of the spice blend you might want to add. This also gives you the opportunity to sprinkle a nice, vibrant coating on top for some color without overwhelming the whole dish. A little squeeze of lemon will drive the whole seafood inspo home even further.