For National Ranch Day, March 10, you should put ranch dressing on everything. For today only, calories don’t count and the only law of the land is Ranch. Gather a few friends for a ranch taste test to determine which ranch is superior, try your hand at some new ranch-inclusive recipes, or simply use the iconic hashtag #RanchEverything.
Ranch is America’s #1 salad dressing and is by far our favorite salad dressing as a nation. It received 40 percent of the vote in a poll conducted by the Dressings and Sauces Association. Italian dressing took second place with just 10 percent
- 1937 – Hidden Valley Ranch is not the first to participate in the ranch game. In Texas, recipes for buttermilk dressing date back to 1937. Because buttermilk was more readily available in the High Plains than vegetable fats, cowboys have long enjoyed creamy buttermilk-based dressings.
- 1949 – Ranch dressing was created in 1949 by a plumber turned cowboy. While working as a contract plumber in Alaska, Steve Henson began cooking for his co-workers and perfecting his buttermilk vinaigrette recipe. Five years later, he moved to California with his wife Gayle and bought a ranch.
- 1954 – Ranch dressing was invented by Steve Henson at Hidden Valley Ranch, a ranch near Santa Barbara, California.
- 1972 – The Hensons’ famous buttermilk dressing quickly became a staple at the table at Hidden Valley Ranch and soon after, the Hensons began selling it to guests and local supermarkets. More than two decades later, in 1972, the couple sold their name and recipe to Clorox for $8 million. Not bad for a little buttermilk, mayonnaise and herbs.
- 1980 – Ranch becomes a popular flavoring for snacks like chips and crackers.
- 1983 – Doritos makes him famous. Stores initially sold the dry mix until shelf-stable bottles of the creamy dressing were introduced in 1983.
- 1983 – Clorox, the parent company of Hidden Valley Ranch, develops a non-refrigerated bottled Ranch formula.
- 1986 – By the time Cool Ranch Doritos hit the grocery scene in 1986, the ranch phenomenon was officially here to stay.
- 1992 – Ranch dressing has been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992, surpassing Italian dressing.
- 1994 – Domino’s launches the ranch-pizza combo. Drizzling ranch dressing on your pizza – or dipping it – is a controversial topic, but where did the technique begin? There are varying accounts over the years, but Domino’s began including ranch dressing with its chicken wings in 1994. From there, pizza lovers began dipping their crusts in this heavenly dressing, and the rest is up to you. to history.
- 2015 – Hidden Valley Ranch sold $440 million worth of salad dressing in 2015.
- 2017 – a survey found that 40% of Americans named Ranch as their favorite salad dressing.
- 2018 – In honor of National Ranch Day 2018, Hidden Valley Ranch gave away a jewel-encrusted bottle of Ranch valued at $35,000.
- The Hidden Valley brand owns the rights to “The Original Ranch®”. After decades of trademark lawsuits, similar products can be labeled “ranch style” or simply “ranch.”
- There’s an entire restaurant devoted to ranch dressing. You may think you’re in love with ranch dressing, but you’ve got nothing on the owners of Twisted Ranch in St. Louis, Missouri. Each menu item features one of their 31 house-made ranch dressings.
- The average American consumes 15 ranch salads per year – out of 38 total on average.
- Today’s ranch dressing bears little or no resemblance to the original. At the time of its creation, the ranch had a few basic ingredients: buttermilk, mayonnaise, spices and herbs. Healthy and caloric, but unfortunately perishable.
- In their quest to perfect a shelf-stable alternative, Clorox and competitors Kraft, Ken’s and Wish-Bone have created alternatives based on soybean and canola oil. Other fun ingredients include MSG, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate, as well as calcium disodium EDTA, among others.
- Since its inception, Hidden Valley Ranch has developed over 70 different varieties of ranch dressing.
Sources:
Food
Taste of home
Delight
Thriller
Ten random facts
Recipe Station
National today
