Old Fashioned Lancaster County Amish Macaroni Salad

If you’re looking for a recipe for Amish Macaroni Salad you’ve come to the right place. Straight out a Lancaster Pennsylvania cookbook, an authentic Amish pasta salad recipe that’s bold in flavor and creamy in texture. A perfect make-ahead easy side dish for BBQ chicken, burger or ribs.

Inspiration for This Recipe

Growing up on a wheat farm in the middle of Kansas, horse drawn carriages, Amish straw hats and girls in full length dresses wearing kapps were very common site in our community.

Yoder, a nearby town is the hub of the local Amish Community and is named after the town’s founder. It’s the largest Amish community in Kansas.

With that said, I’m no stranger to Amish cuisine. We were regulars at Carriage Crossing, probably the most famous Amish eatery in the community. And of course Yoder’s Macaroni Salad. The Dutch Kitchen, for homemade cinnamon rolls and homemade noodles, and Carolines in Arlington for some of the best homemade anything you can imagine. Bread comes to mind.

A few weeks ago, our good friends Greg and Cauleen traveled back east to visit family in Lancaster, PA.  Which as we know has the largest concentration of Amish in the United States.

They brought us back some great Amish food souvenirs including the Lancaster cookbook from which I prepared this Dutch Amish macaroni salad. The recipes are submitted by residents of Lancaster County, many of whom are famous for their Pennsylvania Dutch Amish cooking traditions.

We loved this macaroni salad recipe that I found in this cookbook so much that I want to share it with you. Why is this recipe so special? I’m crediting the dressing.

Dressing for Amish Macaroni Salad

There were several recipes for macaroni salad, and the reason this particular recipe caught my eye was the process to make the dressing. Let’s take a look:

• Hard Boiled Eggs This recipe calls for 4 hard boiled eggs. Once cooked, separate out the egg whites and the egg yolks.
• Add the Mustard Place the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl and mash them. You’ll save the egg whites to chop and add to the macaroni salad. Add yellow mustard and blend well.
• Add the remainder of the Dressing Ingredients. Add sugar, Miracle Whip, condensed evaporated milk and vinegar and mix well.
• Complete the recipe Pour over cooked macaroni to which chopped vegetables have been added and stir well, adding a little of the cooked pasta water to the mix. This will help keep the macaroni from drying out.
• You’re done This macaroni salad is best if stored in the refrigerator overnight.
• Pasta Shapes Elbow Macaroni doesn’t have to be the king of macaroni salad. Play around with shapes. We like large shell macaroni or a curly shape like the cavatappi shown below for this recipe

Macaroni Salad With Evaporated Condensed Milk

One recipe that will always catch my eye is a good old fashioned Amish macaroni salad with evaporated milk and Miracle Whip.

Something about it reminded me the sweet macaroni salad that my mom used to serve up when I was a kid. It turned out to be incredibly flavorful. 

Creamy with mayonnaise, tangy and sweet from the mustard and sugar combination.

Adding in evaporated milk, (unsweetened condensed milk) the mixture was perfect for the al dente pasta to soak up for a creamy end result texture. Evaporated milk tastes like milk with a slightly sweeter flavor due to the process in which it’s made. It’s also thicker and creamier making it a popular addition to any pasta salad.

Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad with Miracle Whip

I found it interesting that the recipe called for “dressing”. 

Growing up in Kansas and following any recipe, the word dressing always meant Miracle Whip. As I’m assuming was the case for this recipe. I actually grew up calling Miracle Whip “dressing”. 

We used it in Ham Salad Sandwiches, in potato salads and cole slaw.

The sweeter flavor seemed to compliment all of those dishes. And growing up, using Miracle Whip was the only way to make macaroni salad.

A simple recipe to put together, you can see ingredient measurements in the above recipe photo and see that I’ve adjusted the amount of sugar and increased mustard. It was just too sweet for us.

How Do You Keep Macaroni Salad From Drying Out?

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. If you let that water from cooked pasta go down the drain, you’re throwing away liquid gold.

That cloudy starchy liquid is cooked pasta’s best friend. It can turn elbow macaroni into that silky, saucy pasta of your dreams. It’s filled with salt and starch and when combined with fat (Miracle Whip in this case), results in a luxurious sauce.

Instead of letting that water drain through your colander, right before draining, just take a 1 cup measuring cup and dish out some of that hot water. It helps to emulsify any sauce you’re adding to any pasta.

Recipe for Amish Macaroni Salad

The salad is flavorful and bold. With it’s sweet profile, this is a great partner to a piece of spicy barbecue sauced chicken or ribs. Or great along side a grilled burger.

And with the crunch of celery, carrot and onion, this pasta salad is packed with flavor.

And as far as macaroni salads, go this is a quick and easy recipe that will find your whole family digging in and asking for 2nds.

If you notice in the photo of the recipe in the cookbook, it calls for 1 1/2 cups sugar. I have scaled it back to 1 cup sugar and increased the vinegar. You may want to start with 3/4 cup sugar and add as you see fit.

I’ve never had Walmart Macaroni Salad, but I’ve been told this is very similar.

I hope you give this Amish salad a try, and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating.

And if you have a favorite Amish Pasta Salad recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.

More Pasta Salad Recipes

• The Best Pasta Salad Recipe Ever No really, it’s that good. chewy cheese tortellini with a fresh crunch of broccoli, colored with red tomatoes, with a creamy sweet unique dressing.
• Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Pasta Salad, A nice combination of flavors includes black olives and pickles and of course with mayonnaise.
• Creamy Smoked Mozzarella Penne Pasta Salad Penne pasta becomes special with cubes of smoked mozzarella, roasted red bell peppers and a creamy Parmesan sauce.
• Creamy BBQ Ranch Pasta Salad, With a BBQ Ranch sauce, black beans and tomatoes.
• Old Fashioned Classic Macaroni Salad, Perfectly sweet, creamy and tangy.

And if you’re looking for more side dish recipes, don’t miss my Side Dish Category. You’ll find lots of great recipes including a fun lineup of potato salad recipes. And the most popular side dish recipe on my site for good old fashioned Broccoli Cheez Whiz Rice Casserole.

And if you’re looking for even more side dishes for picnic style gatherings, don’t miss this line-up of Summer cook-out sides. I’m positive you’ll find something you love.

Old Fashioned Lancaster County Amish Macaroni Salad …It’s What’s for a Summer Side Dish.