A lasting and enduring love affair: ranch dressing

[Gifted Gourmet]

Slate article

Ranch dressing has been the nation's best-selling salad topper since 1992, when it overtook Italian. How did this simple mixture of mayonnaise, buttermilk, and herbs become America's favorite way to liven up lettuce?

First, the great minds behind Pine-Sol and Liquid-Plumr added butter flavoring to the seasoning so home chefs could make the dressing with plain milk. But the real breakthrough came in 1983 ...

Will ranch forever dominate the dressings realm?

Forgive me for the pun but this is one cool article!

Confession time here: do you indulge in topping your salads with creamy ranch dressing? Your potato chips ranch flavored?

What makes it so incredibly popular in your opinion?

[Tess]

I don't care for the stuff myself, but I think they've pretty much nailed it, especially the business about it substituting for mayonnaise. The texture of commercial mayonnaise in the US *is* weird and it has an obnoxious metallic flavor. That's why Americans can't believe that Europeans put mayonnaise on frites.

[BarbaraY]

I prefer a good homemade red wine or Balsamic vinaigrette but I do make up the Hidden Vally Ranch dressing because my daughter is unable to eat acid foods.

I think it is especially popular with kids because of the creamy blandness.

The bottled Ranch Dressing is just slimy, in my opinion, and I won't have it in the house.

I think the same people that used to order Thousand Island on everything have now turned to Ranch.

[Pookie]

I hate ranch dressing too. At least the bottled and dry package stuff. I have never made it at home. The Husband laughs at me but I can't even stand the smell.

And I agree on the sub for mayo idea. Plus it's a sneaky way to pile lots of fat on your salad and still beleive you are being healty.

[viva]

I like fries dipped in ranch.

[merrybaker]

Usually I make a vinaigrette. But I have to admit that homemade Ranch Dressing became our favorite when we wanted a creamy dressing for a salad to go with burgers or barbecue. During this hot summer we've gone back to some of the old standbys -- Roquefort, Thousand Island, and Green Goddess with lots of anchovies and fresh tarragon. OMG, they are so much better! I'll never do Ranch again!

[easternsun]

when i was a kid i liked blue cheese dressing. now i like balsamic. i dont think i have ever tried ranch dressing but the chips are fabulous in sandwiches

i loved the article though, thanks for the link!

BarabaraY ==>what's in thousand islands anyway? ketchup, mayonnaise and pickles i really dont know...i just remember the coagulated mess that i had to spoon on salads at my first job: phone girl at a delivery pizza place i will never touch the stuff.

if ranch IS the new thousand islands, that is probably a good thing.

[peppyre]

when i was a kid i liked blue cheese dressing.  now i like balsamic.  i dont think i have ever tried ranch dressing but the chips are fabulous in sandwiches

i loved the article though, thanks for the link!

BarabaraY ==>what's in thousand islands anyway?  ketchup, mayonnaise and pickles     i really dont know...i just remember the coagulated mess that i had to spoon on salads at my first job: phone girl at a delivery pizza place i will never touch the stuff.

if ranch IS the new thousand islands, that is probably a good thing.

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Homeade Thousand Island is a revelation!! I never touched the stuff until a couple months when I was I at a restaurant with my mom and she really wanted the shrimp salad with Thousand Island dressing. They made their own and it was so damn good. A month or so later for her birthday, she asked me to recreate it for her. After a little hunting to find several recipes, it was nothing like what you find in the commercial product. If I remember what I did, I'll post it in RG.

Oh, and on topic, I only ever ate ranch chips, until I realized that they were disgusting. I've always preferred vinaigrettes.

[*Deborah*]

Wow. Aspersions!

I am happy to eat balsamic vinaigrette or whatever fresh and delicious thing a chef makes for me, but when it comes to the sort of dressing available in a certain sort of restaurant, I prefer the bottled ranch to the bottled everything else. No question.

Do I buy it for home use? sometimes, but I get the refrigerated "good" one in the produce section, not the mass of chemicals on the shelf.

Chip-wise, I am partial to sour cream and onion or salt and vinegar, neither of which really need a dip, but I will sometimes get a dill dip for plain ruffled chips. Or once in a great while, a ranch dip.

[ghostrider]

Excellent article, right from the Simpsons opening hook.

Ranch dressing, which arrived at a time when mayo had gained a reputation as a diet-buster, was essentially a socially acceptable form of the gloopy condiment. It quickly became the preferred way to infuse otherwise healthy dishes with a palatable amount of fat.

I think that's the crux of the matter.

Can't abide the stuff myself. EVOO & wine vinegar, day in, day out. I'm in a rut & I like it.

I loved 1000 Island when I was a kid, & yes, used to make it myself as soon as I was old enough to handle measuring cups & jars, but I lost that taste somewhere on the way to adulthood, or wherever it is I am now.

[Gifted Gourmet]

but I lost that taste somewhere on the way to adulthood, or wherever it is I am now.

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perhaps when you began to realize that salad leaves each had their own textures and tastes .. buried under the horrific gloop of Thousand Island, there were some delicate leaves crying in dismay, "hellloooo, we are here under this tarpaulin of slime!"

[bergerka]

Ranch dressing saved my sanity during the two years I lived in a city in the middle of the country somewhere where a "salad" consisted of some semi-fresh iceberg lettuce with a few carrot shavings and some croutons on top. I will forever love it for giving flavor to my salad.

What I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY love, though, is...ranch dip. The powder that you get (Hidden Valley, of course...accept no substitutions!) and mix in with a thingy of sour cream and set out with chips (Ruffles have Ridges!) and/or some veggies for dipping.

:wub:

Man, I can't help it. I adore the taste of that crap.

K

[purplewiz]

I think it's not just the texture, but the flavor - there is some flavor there, but it's not too much. I've noticed many people tend to want some flavor in their food, but nothing too strong, nothing too challenging. It's also more consistent flavor-wise from brand to brand, especially compared to Italian dressing, which can be too sweet or too vinegary or overpoweringly garlicky.

Yes, we keep a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch in the fridge at all times. It's my husband's dressing of choice, and I like it for dipping certain foods into, and over some salads where I don't want the dressing overpowering the flavor of the ingredients (as some vinaigrettes tend to do).

The funny thing is that I don't like most ranch flavored things, like chips or especially Cool Ranch Doritos (yuck). They taste nothing like the dressing to me, just salt and acid.

Marcia.

[Jaymes]

I like fries dipped in ranch.

Lite Ranch Dressing livens up a baked potato when you're dieting.

[racheld]

I make all our salad dressings, for home use and for a few friends' dinners and parties in their homes now and then. When the "ranch" mix first came out, we tried it. After paying about 500$ a pound for those powders (dry buttermilk, salt, garlic, and a few shreds of parsley dried like spiders on a windowsill), I bought my own buttermilk powder and went from there.

Then, I started making all our "ranch" with the brine from our homemade dill pickles (that added enough tang to eliminate the buttermilk powder and the milk), adding mayo to the proper consistency, along with minced garlic (or powdered, as the spirit moved) and some chopped or dried dillweed (not those horrid dried seeds). Neighbors would come by and pick up a quart. One of my sons' childhood friends who had eaten many a meal at our table would make a detour past us on his way back to college on weekends, just for a quart or two.

Haven't touched the little blue packet in years, but we always have "ranch" in the fridge, fresh and tasty and salty and dilly and nice when used sparingly over a salad, or made with less juice to "dip" consistency.

And the bottled? Garlic-flavored glue with floaty parsley dust. Doesn't even SMELL like something edible.

Edited August 7, 2005 by racheld (log)

[Sencha]

On rare occasions, I'll use ranch dressing as a dip, but otherwise stay away from the stuff. I'm just not a big fan of creamy things on my salads. I much prefer vinaigrettes on them. The taste of vinegar is something I really like, plus vinaigrettes are thin, making for something that looks more attractive (at least to me).

[Gifted Gourmet]

And the bottled?  Garlic-flavored glue with floaty parsley dust.  Doesn't even SMELL like something edible.

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and here's why:

Clorox managed to add the right blend of preservatives to give the dressing a shelf life of approximately 150 days. (The science behind Clorox's innovation is secret, though it's a safe bet that Steve Henson's original recipe didn't call for calcium disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate.)

[eipi10]

I guess my cynical response is that Americans have terrible tastes. Witness the typical American supermarket.

[Jujubee]

I love homemade ranch dressing. I think it's the tang of the buttermilk, as I also love coleslaw made with buttermilk dressing. I don't mind being low-brow as long as it tastes good.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I guess my cynical response is that Americans have terrible tastes. Witness the typical American supermarket.

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excuuuse me? Where might you reside, eipi10? Is this possibly simply national stereotyping? Americans have a wide range of tastes, not unlike their foreign counterparts, I'll wager. Not every Frenchman whom I met while visiting France was exactly a gourmet ...

[eipi10]

I guess my cynical response is that Americans have terrible tastes. Witness the typical American supermarket.

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excuuuse me? Where might you reside, eipi10? Is this possibly simply national stereotyping? Americans have a wide range of tastes, not unlike their foreign counterparts, I'll wager. Not every Frenchman whom I met while visiting France was exactly a gourmet ...

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I'm American. Yes, it's national stereotyping. Obviously there are exceptions. Still I think the typical European eats better than the typical American. Fresh breads, complex and varied cheeses, fresh fruits and vegetables compared with Fruit Loops, Kraft singles, and salads composed of iceberg lettuce and one eighth of a tomato, drowned in ranch dressing.

Edited August 7, 2005 by eipi10 (log)

[racheld]

eipi, Hon,

You gotta quit hanging out in the Froot Loop and Plastic Cheese aisles, and get yourself over to PRODUCE!!! Or dairy. Or Meat, Seafood or those Gucci aisles with ninety-dollar mushrooms.

It's a BANQUET out there.

[racheld]

PS

Several years ago, we were sponsors of a visiting Colonel from Nigeria, here for training at the local Army base. We took him lots of places during his stay here, and the Army group took the visitors to several of the highlights of our country: Washington, Statue of Liberty, DISNEYWORLD, for Heaven's sake!!

On their last night in town, we had the group to dinner and casually asked what they had enjoyed most about America. Our friend enthusiastically replied, "Marsh!" (local grocery chain).

My husband and I were discussing the evening after everyone left, and I mentioned his strange, but sweetly envious, answer. Hubby pointed out that his pictures of home plainly showed that HIS wife purchased their dinner out of someone's LAP on the sidewalk.

So don't knock the A&P.

Edited to define "Marsh" though there are mentions in succeeding posts.

Edited August 7, 2005 by racheld (log)

[ruthcooks]

PS

Several years ago, we were sponsors of a visiting Colonel from Nigeria, here for training at the local Army base.  We took him lots of places during his stay here, and the Army group took the visitors to several of the highlights of our country:  Washington, Statue of Liberty, DISNEYWORLD, for Heaven's sake!!

On their last night in town, we had the group to dinner and casually asked what they had enjoyed most about America.  Our friend enthusiastically replied, "Marsh!"

My husband and I were discussing the evening after everyone left, and I mentioned his strange, but sweetly envious, answer.  Hubby pointed out that his pictures of home plainly showed that HIS wife purchased their dinner out of someone's LAP on the sidewalk.

So don't knock the A&P.

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Marsh?????

[redglass]

I'll put myself out there and say that I think the stuff is really good. It strikes me as funny that folks talk about its blandness- I guess it's just me, but as a kid, I couldn't stand the stuff. Now I like its creamy/tangy/herby flavor. Not all the time, mind you, but there are times when that homemade vinaigrette (bottled vinaigrette dressing? Talk about gross!) just won't cut it compared to a nice salad with romaine or iceberg and ranch.

I have also not been able to shake the habit (acquired from eating some very bad, very late night pizza in college) of eating crappy delivery pizza with ranch as a dipping sauce from time to time...