Macaroni Salad Alton Brown (2024)

FAQs

Why is my macaroni salad not creamy? ›

The key to the best creamy pasta salad is to rinse the cooked pasta under cold water before tossing it with the dressing. Skipping this step means the dressing will be sticky. We also “de-flame” the onion, which tames the raw onion flavor so that it does not take over the salad.

Rinsing your pasta also stops the cooking process, which will ensure that your pasta isn't overcooked and mushy. By washing away the starchy film on the pasta, you're guaranteeing that when you toss the pasta with your other salad components and dressing, the pasta won't stick together or clump.

Above all: Do not, we repeat do not, make a pasta salad with farfalle. The floppy edges of the bow tie pasta will be overcooked by the time the knot in the middle is al dente, and besides: the slippery texture doesn't do much in the way of trapping sauce. Another shape to avoid? Tortellini.

Pure substances like table salt (Nacl) can be summed up by a simple chemical formula, but most of the things that we encounter on a daily basis are not pure substances. Macaroni salad is actually a complex mixture, containing thousands of different types of molecules.

What Is a Mixture? A mixture is a combination of two or more substances in any proportion. This is different from a compound, which consists of substances in fixed proportions. The substances in a mixture also do not combine chemically to form a new substance, as they do in a compound.

These elements are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. The CHNOPS elements come together to form biomolecules, the molecules found in all of the living organisms on earth. Carbon provides the structural framework for biomolecules.

Fats and sweetness can help smooth the bitter corners of a dish, just like they make coffee taste less bitter. So add a spoonful of sugar, cream or butter to tame that bitterness.

Vinegar and other acidic ingredients do strange things to the flavor of pasta when used in salad-level amounts. Ever notice an irritating acerbic aftertaste just about every time you've eaten pasta salad? That's the vinegar announcing itself, and it's not pleasant.

As the pasta cools, the vinegar will soak in and every noodle will burst with bright tanginess. After dressing it, you'll get a snap of acid and tons of flavor in every spoonful. You can use this trick on any creamy macaroni salad recipe—just one try will make you a believer.

How to doctor up store bought macaroni salad? ›

Generally by adding some stronger flavored vegetables such as bell pepper, pimento, onion, green onion, chives, white pepper, slight amounts of mustard, paprika, black olives, sweet relish, or parsley.