The extent to which Americans adore ranch dressing is almost embarrassing. It’s more akin to the subtle self-awareness you experience when you order a third slice of pizza than it is shameful. It is present everywhere. It affects everything. However, the homemade version, which is made from scratch with a strong ranch seasoning blend, actually tastes better than anything found in a grocery store squeeze bottle. The store-bought version begins to seem like a compromise you no longer need to make once you realize that this gap is larger than most people realize.
The recipe itself is not difficult. You’re working with a base of buttermilk, sour cream, and mayonnaise—three ingredients that work together to create a texture that is simultaneously pourable and thick that no amount of laboratory reformulation has ever been able to replicate. Add some dill, black pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, and dried parsley to that. A squeeze of lemon juice is added to some versions. You can prepare the dry seasoning in bulk and store it, so the next time you want to dress, it will only take fifteen minutes. On a weeknight, that is important.
All of this was invented by Steve Henson, a plumber from Thayer, Nebraska. While preparing meals for Alaskan construction workers in the early 1950s, he created the recipe. It’s important to note that the nation’s most well-known salad dressing wasn’t created by a professional chef in a restaurant kitchen, but rather by a contractor who fed workers in the Alaskan wilderness.
In the end, he retired to California, purchased a guest ranch in the mountains above Santa Barbara, and began serving the dressing to visitors who requested to take jars home because they loved it so much. By 1957, he was using every room in his home to fulfill orders and mail packets to clients for 75 cents each.
In 1972, Clorox paid eight million dollars to acquire the Hidden Valley Ranch brand, which may not have seemed modest at the time. Over the ensuing decades, the company reformulated the product several times before adding buttermilk powder to the seasoning to enable the dressing to be made with ordinary milk, which was less expensive, more widely available, and somewhat different. That version was adopted as the norm. Because most Americans were raised on that version, homemade ranch made with real buttermilk and fresh herbs can taste surprisingly delicious. You’re not pursuing nostalgia. It’s more akin to the original.
The way you use the seasoning mix is altered by preparing it in advance. About a cup and a half of the wet base is mixed with two tablespoons of the dry blend; mayonnaise bears the majority of the weight, sour cream adds depth, and buttermilk loosens the texture so that it coats a romaine leaf without drowning it. Depending on whether you’re creating a dip or an appropriate pourable dressing, the ratio can be changed. For vegetables, it is thicker; for salads, it is looser. It’s more adaptable than bottled ranch.
In 1992, ranch overtook Italian dressing as the best-selling item in America, a title it has maintained ever since. Approximately 40% of Americans declared it to be their favorite outfit by 2017. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that this sauce was developed by a self-taught home cook in a remote Alaskan camp, expanded by a cleaning products company, and eventually adopted by almost half of the nation. The flavor is present in the homemade version, but the backstory isn’t on the label. And it turns out that’s what people were really looking for all along.
