{{short description|Style of salad dressing}} {{Other uses|Ranch (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox food | image = Ranch dressing.jpg | caption = Homemade ranch dressing | alternate_name = | place_of_origin = California, United States | associated_cuisine = American cuisine | creator = Steve Henson | year = Early 1950s | course = | type = Salad dressing or dip | served = | main_ingredient = {{hlist | Mayonnaise | sour cream | buttermilk | salt | black pepper | garlic | onion | chives | parsley | dill}} | variations = | similar_dish = | other = | cookbook = Buttermilk Ranch Dressing }} '''Ranch dressing''' is a savory, creamy American salad dressing usually made from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, and herbs (commonly chives, parsley and dill), mixed into a sauce based on mayonnaise or another oil emulsion.<ref name="Hardy">{{Cite web |last=Hardy |first=James |date=2023-12-13 |title=Exploring Culinary History: Who Invented Ranch Dressing and When Was This Iconic Sauce Born? {{!}} History Cooperative |url=https://historycooperative.org/who-invented-ranch-dressing/ |access-date=2024-04-23 |language=en-US}}</ref> Sour cream and yogurt are sometimes used in addition to, or as a substitute for, buttermilk and mayonnaise.
Ranch has been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992, when it overtook Italian dressing.<ref name="slate">{{Cite news |last=Koerner |first=Brendan |date=2005-08-05 |title=Ranch Dressing. Why do Americans love it so much? |language=en-US |work=Slate Magazine |url=https://slate.com/culture/2005/08/america-s-love-affair-with-ranch-dressing.html |access-date=2023-09-27 |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> It is also popular in the United States and Canada as a dip, and as a flavoring for potato chips and other foods. In 2017, 40% of Americans named ranch as their favorite dressing, according to a study by the Association for Dressings and Sauces.<ref name="moskin">{{cite news |last=Moskin |first=Julia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/dining/ranch-dressing-history.html |title=Ranch Nation |work=The New York Times |date=2018-09-18 |access-date=2018-09-24 }}</ref> Ranch dressing is most prominently used in the Midwest region.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=Stephanie |date=2022-10-24 |title=The US Region That Consumes More Ranch Dressing Than Any Other |url=https://www.tastingtable.com/1068981/the-us-region-that-consumes-more-ranch-dressing-than-any-other/ |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=Tasting Table |language=en-US}}</ref>
==History==
=== Development === The original Ranch salad dressing recipe was concocted in the early 1950s by Steve Henson (1918–2007), a Thayer, Nebraska, native working as a plumbing contractor in the Anchorage area, while cooking to feed his work crews. Henson retired from plumbing at age 35 and moved with his wife Gayle to Santa Barbara County, California, where in 1956 he purchased a guest ranch in San Marcos Pass and renamed it Hidden Valley Ranch.<ref name="andrews">{{cite news|title=Back at the Ranch: Saga of a Dressing Continues|last=Andrews|first=Colman|date=4 October 1987|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=23 April 2024|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-04-ca-32735-story.html}}</ref><ref name="ortiz">{{cite news|title=He Put the Ranch in Dressing|last=Ortiz|first=Sergio|work=Hartford Courant|date=27 January 1999|agency=Los Angeles Times Syndicate|page=G1}}</ref><ref name="StBarbaraIndy">{{cite web|last=Redmon|first=Michael|title=Ranch Dressing Originated in Santa Barbara's Mountains|website=The Santa Barbara Independent|date=November 20, 2015|url=http://www.independent.com/news/2015/nov/25/ranch-dressing-originated-santa-barbaras-mountains/|accessdate=March 18, 2021}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes" />
Henson served the salad dressing he had created at his Hidden Valley Ranch steakhouse, which became popular, and guests bought jars to take home.<ref name="ortiz" /> The first commercial customer for ranch dressing was Henson's friend, Audrey Ovington, who was the owner of Cold Spring Tavern.<ref name="StBarbaraIndy" /> By 1957, Henson began selling packages of dressing mix in stores.<ref name="StBarbaraIndy" /><ref name="NYTimes">{{cite web |last1=Moskin |first1=Julie |title=Ranch Nation How one creamy, peppery salad dressing became America's favorite flavor. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/dining/ranch-dressing-history.html |website=The New York Times |date=18 September 2018 |access-date=3 February 2025}}</ref>
Henson began selling the dry ingredients in packages by mail for 75 cents a piece, and eventually devoted every room in his house to the operation.<ref name="StBarbaraIndy" /> By the mid-1960s, the guest ranch had closed, but Henson's "ranch dressing" mail-order business was thriving.<ref name="StBarbaraIndy" /><ref name="NYTimes" />
The Hensons incorporated Hidden Valley Ranch Food Products, Inc., and opened a factory to manufacture ranch dressing in larger volumes, which they first distributed to supermarkets in the Southwest, and eventually nationwide.<ref name="InformsJournal">{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Gerald L. |last2=Dell |first2=Robert F. |last3=Davis |first3=Ray L. |last4=Duff |first4=Richard H. |title=Optimizing Plant-Line Schedules and an Application at Hidden Valley Manufacturing Company |journal=Interfaces |date=May–June 2002 |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=1–14 |url=https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA487893/mode/2up |access-date=14 March 2020 |publisher=The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences |location=Catonsville, MD |doi=10.1287/inte.32.3.1.44 |s2cid=15375294 |issn=0092-2102|hdl=10945/38098 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
=== Commercialization === Manufacturing of the mix was later moved to San Jose, then to Colorado, and then to Sparks, Nevada, in 1972.<ref name=StBarbaraIndy/><ref name=InformsJournal/> In October 1972, the Hidden Valley Ranch brand was bought by Clorox for $8 million,<ref name="slate" /><ref name="StBarbaraIndy" /> and Henson retired.<ref name="StBarbaraIndy" />
Kraft Foods and General Foods introduced similar dry seasoning packets labeled as "ranch style". Clorox reformulated the Hidden Valley Ranch dressing several times to make it more convenient for consumers, including adding buttermilk flavoring to the seasoning, allowing the dressing to be made using much less expensive regular milk.<ref name=slate/> In 1983, Clorox developed a non-refrigerated bottled formulation.
During the 1980s, ranch became a common snack food flavor, starting with Cool Ranch Doritos in 1987. Hidden Valley Ranch Wavy Lay's potato chips were introduced in 1994.<ref name=slate/>
During the 1990s, Hidden Valley had three child-oriented variations of ranch dressing: pizza, nacho cheese, and taco flavors.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Taylor|first=Heather|date=January 31, 2017|title=A Look Back at Hidden Valley Ranch's 10 Biggest Milestones|work=Huffpost|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-look-back-at-hidden-val_b_14525264|access-date=February 15, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfrHc6B4Et4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/cfrHc6B4Et4| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=1993 TV Ad: Pizza, Taco & Nacho Cheese Flavored Ranch Dressing by Hidden Valley|date=1993|last=|first=|type=Television advertisement|language=}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 1992, ranch surpassed Italian dressing to become the best-selling salad dressing in the United States.<ref name="slate" /> In 1994, Domino’s first started offering ranch sauce as a condiment with its chicken wings and pizzas, a combination that quickly became popular with customers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The History of Ranch Dressing started in 1949 from a hidden valley. |url=https://www.ranch4life.com/the-history |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.ranch4life.com |language=en}}</ref>
== Production == As of 2002, Clorox subsidiary Hidden Valley Manufacturing Company was producing ranch packets and bottled dressings at two large factories, in Reno, Nevada, and Wheeling, Illinois.<ref name="InformsJournal" /> In addition to Clorox, several other companies including Ken’s Foods, Kraft Foods, and Wish-Bone also produce ranch dressing.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Holly |date=2026-04-16 |title=Ranch dressing: An American staple that actually began life on ... a ranch |url=https://apnews.com/article/ranch-dressing-american-objects-wings-pizza-pickles-989ebf24297aa8a4b78cc916b5713e47 |access-date=2026-05-14 |website=Associated Press |language=en}}</ref>
== Variations == In the Southwestern United States, there is a variant from New Mexican cuisine called "green chile ranch" which adds green New Mexico chile pepper as an ingredient.<ref name="Scinto 2022">{{cite web | last=Scinto | first=Maria | title=These Are America's Best Restaurants For Celebrating Thanksgiving | website=Tasting Table | date=November 13, 2022 | url=https://www.tastingtable.com/1099790/these-are-americas-best-restaurants-for-celebrating-thanksgiving/ | access-date=March 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Ragland 2022">{{cite web | last=Ragland | first=Gigi | title=At This Albuquerque Restaurant, the Flavors of New Mexico's 19 Pueblos Come Together | website=Condé Nast Traveler | date=June 1, 2022 | url=https://www.cntraveler.com/story/at-this-albuquerque-restaurant-the-flavors-of-new-mexicos-19-pueblos-come-together | access-date=March 4, 2023}}</ref> Regional restaurant chains, like Dion's, produce and sell green chile ranch, as do others.<ref name="KRQE 2017">{{cite web | title=People rushing Dion's for new green chile ranch | website=KRQE NEWS 13 | date=August 29, 2017 | url=https://www.krqe.com/news/people-rushing-dions-for-new-green-chile-ranch/ | access-date=March 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Landes 2022">{{cite web | last=Landes | first=Craig | title=Recipe For Success | website=American City Business Journals | date=June 9, 2022 | url=https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2022/06/09/dions-keys-longevity-restaurant-business.html | access-date=March 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Let Thy Food 2017">{{cite web | title=Green Chile Ranch Superfood Dressing • Dip | website=Let Thy Food | date=March 15, 2017 | url=https://letthyfood.com/green-chile-ranch-superfood-dressing-dip/ | access-date=March 4, 2023}}</ref>
Other variations include avocado, roasted red pepper, and truffle.<ref name="Hardy" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Stevens |first1=Ashlie D. |title=The story of ranch, the "Cool American" condiment that has divided a nation (and taken over Etsy) |url=https://www.salon.com/2021/01/31/the-story-of-ranch-the-cool-american-condiment-that-has-divided-a-nation-and-taken-over-etsy/ |website=Salon |access-date=23 April 2024 |language=en |date=31 January 2021}}</ref>
==Trademark lawsuit==
One side effect of the adoption of the name "ranch" for Henson's new salad dressing was that it resulted in a federal lawsuit over whether the phrase "ranch style" could be used to describe competing salad dressing products. Since the early 1930s, there had also been an existing brand of pinto beans branded as "Ranch Style Beans", now marketed by Conagra Brands.
In 1975, Waples-Platter, the Texas manufacturer and founder of Ranch Style Beans, sued Kraft Foods and General Foods for trademark infringement for their "ranch style" products, even though Waples-Platter had declined to enter the salad dressing market itself over concerns about rapid spoilage.
The case was tried in 1976 before federal judge Eldon Brooks Mahon in Fort Worth, Texas. Mahon ruled in favor of Waples-Platter in a lengthy opinion, which described the various "ranch style" and "ranch" products then available in the 1970s in the United States, of which many had been created to compete against Hidden Valley Ranch. Mahon's opinion cites evidence indicating lawyers had compelled Henson himself to sit for a deposition during the discovery process to testify about the history of Hidden Valley Ranch.<ref name="Waples-Platter">''[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8238139573674653933 Waples-Platter Companies v. Gen. Foods Corp.]'', 439 F.Supp. 551 (N.D. Tex. 1977).</ref>
Mahon specifically noted that Hidden Valley Ranch and Waples-Platter had no dispute with each other, though he also said Hidden Valley Ranch was simultaneously suing General Foods in a separate federal case in California. The only issue before the Texas federal district court was that Waples-Platter was disputing the right of other American food manufacturers to compete against Hidden Valley Ranch by using the label "ranch style".<ref name="Waples-Platter" />
==See also== {{Portal|Food}} * List of dips
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} {{Wiktionary}} *[https://www.hiddenvalley.com/about-us/ Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing history]
{{Salad dressings}} {{Herbs & spices}} {{Condiments}}
Category:American inventions Category:Dips (food) Category:Salad dressings Category:Cuisine of California Category:Food and drink introduced in the 1950s Category:Mayonnaise Category:American condiments Category:Creamy sauces