A la Carte: Ranch style  

By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST 

Let’s talk about something controversial: ranch dressing. 

Maybe you put it on everything. Maybe you think it’s basic and boring. Maybe the idea of ranch on pizza makes you seethe. Or maybe you can’t eat pizza without ranch.  

No matter how you feel about it, ranch has been the most popular dressing in the United States since 1992. Statistically, it blows every other dressing out of the water. 

My earliest memories of ranch dressing are tied to my grandmother’s garden in Billings and summers filled with fresh vegetables. Grandma Dora, like her father before her, was a magical gardener. As summer went on, it gifted us an endless supply of carrots, kohlrabi, cucumbers and more—but those three were my favorites. I remember filling my arms with vegetables, taking them to the hose by the back door for a rinse and then heading inside to the fridge.  

On the bottom shelf of the fridge door, a Tupperware dressing container waited. Inside that, of course, was a seemingly endless supply of Hidden Valley ranch dressing, made from the packets.  

Hidden Valley is the original ranch, I’ve since learned. It was created by Steve Henson in the ’50s, and was served at his Hidden Valley Ranch before being commercialized. Yes, the namesake was an actual working ranch called Hidden Valley.  

My ranch dressing tastes have evolved, however. I can’t remember the last time I bought a Hidden Valley packet, though it remains the ranch-iest of ranch tastes in my book. Thinking about this column this week, I mentioned the idea to a friend, who immediately asked me to define “ranch” dressing. I quoted chives, garlic, and buttermilk. 

“What makes ranch ranch?” Julia Moskin writes in the New York Times. “It’s a combination of creaminess (from buttermilk, sour cream, sometimes mayonnaise) and herbaceousness (often parsley, thyme, dill), plus a long pull of allium (onion and garlic) and a shot of black pepper.” 

This jives well with my own definition. Still, the beauty of ranch is that there is no one way to make it. While Hidden Valley is the standard, even they have changed up the recipe over the years. I highly doubt Henson used maltodextrin and xanthan gum—both of which are in the ingredients on the powdered package version. These seem to be modern additions based more on shelf life than quality of ingredients.  

Truth is, you don’t need the package at all. If your kitchen is even minimally stocked, you probably have everything you need to make ranch in a matter of minutes.  

I make ranch dressing in a jar. This allows me to toss ingredients in, lid up, and shake the hell out of it in lieu of stirring and having to wash more dishes—I detest doing dishes.  

Start with the creamy ingredients. I tend toward a mayonnaise and sour cream combo, with buttermilk added to make it more like a dressing and less like a dip. But you could use plain yogurt and any sort of unsweetened milk. These ingredients are a guide and not a rule. And really, who keeps buttermilk on hand at all times? A small cap full of vinegar in regular old milk will give you that same tang. Another alternative is buttermilk powder, which lives in the baking section of most grocery stores.  

Fill the jar up a quarter of the way with mayo. Add another quarter jar worth of sour cream, then splash some buttermilk over it. You’re looking for consistency here. If you want a more pourable dressing, use more milk or buttermilk. If you like it more dippable, add less.  

Next, you need to spice up your creamy base. My go-to is chives and garlic, salt and pepper. Simple and classic. These are dry ingredients that are always in my cupboard. But remember the possibilities. Fresh ingredients are welcome additions. Spice is also nice. Think chipotle ranch, buffalo ranch or bacon ranch. A dill-forward ranch can be a nice departure, especially as the plants grow out of control in the summer. Sometimes my ranch dressing becomes a cilantro and serrano ranch perfect for salads with a southwest flair. And if I go that route, I consider avocado as an alternative or addition to some of the creamy ingredients. 

I’m usually tasked with bringing salads to dinner parties, so I must be doing something right. To me, ranch is neither basic nor boring. It’s a base that allows me to experiment with flavors. And yes, I do put it on pizza—at least the mildly soggy frozen kind that Grandma Dora also kept on hand. 

Rachel Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and has written for publications such as Food Network Magazine and Montana Quarterly. Rachel is also the host of the Magic Monday Show on KGLT-FM and teaches at Montana State University.