Ranch dressing

• 1. Introduction

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  Ranch dressing is a creamy American sauce, and in 2017 a study by the Association for Dressings and Sauces found that 40% of Americans named it their favorite dressing. That is a remarkable share for something built from humble parts. Buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion and black pepper supply the savory base. Herbs such as chives, parsley and dill add freshness. All of it is folded into a sauce built on mayonnaise or a similar oil emulsion. Some cooks stir in sour cream or yogurt, either alongside the buttermilk and mayonnaise or in their place. Ranch is especially at home in the Midwest. It is also a dip, and a flavoring for potato chips and other foods, in both the United States and Canada. So who first mixed it up, and why was it feeding a work crew rather than a restaurant? How did a single recipe travel from a guest ranch to supermarket shelves and snack aisles? And how did a simple word, ranch, end up being argued over in a federal courtroom?

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• 2. A Plumber's Cooking

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  Steve Henson was born in 1918 and grew up in Thayer, Nebraska. By the early 1950s he was working as a plumbing contractor in the Anchorage area. His crews needed feeding, and Henson cooked for them. In the course of that cooking he concocted the original ranch dressing recipe. He retired from plumbing at the age of 35. With his wife Gayle, he moved to Santa Barbara County, California. There, in 1956, he bought a guest ranch in San Marcos Pass and renamed it Hidden Valley Ranch. The dressing followed him west. He served it at the ranch steakhouse, where it proved so popular that guests bought jars to carry home. The first commercial customer was Henson's friend Audrey Ovington, who owned Cold Spring Tavern. A dinner-table favorite was about to become a product.

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• 3. From Jars to Packets

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  In 1957, Henson began selling packages of dressing mix in stores. He also sold the dry ingredients by mail, at 75 cents a package. Orders grew until the operation took over every room in his house. By the mid-1960s the guest ranch had closed, yet the mail-order business was thriving. The Hensons incorporated Hidden Valley Ranch Food Products, Inc. and opened a factory to make larger volumes. Supermarkets in the Southwest were the first customers, and eventually distribution reached the whole country. Production later moved to San Jose, then to Colorado, and then to Sparks, Nevada, in 1972. That October, Clorox bought the Hidden Valley Ranch brand for $8 million, and Henson retired. Henson died in 2007. Clorox then began reworking the recipe, and each revision made the dressing easier to use.

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• 4. Cheaper and Shelf Stable

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  Clorox reformulated Hidden Valley Ranch several times, always aiming at convenience for the shopper. One change added buttermilk flavoring to the seasoning. Cooks could then mix the dressing with far cheaper regular milk. In 1983, the company developed a bottled version that did not need refrigeration. Rivals noticed the success. Kraft Foods and General Foods introduced their own dry seasoning packets, labeled as ranch style. Those competitors would soon meet the brand's founders in a very different arena.

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• 5. Beyond the Salad Bowl

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  Cool Ranch Doritos arrived in 1987, and ranch had become a common snack flavor across the 1980s. Hidden Valley Ranch Wavy Lay's potato chips followed in 1994. The 1990s brought a trio of child-oriented Hidden Valley versions, in pizza, nacho cheese and taco flavors. The sales race ended in 1992, when ranch overtook Italian dressing to become the best-selling salad dressing in the United States. It has held that position ever since. In 1994, Domino's began offering ranch sauce as a condiment with its chicken wings and pizzas. Customers took to the pairing quickly. Ranch had stopped being only a dressing for greens.

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• 6. Many Makers, Many Twists

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  By 2002, the Clorox subsidiary Hidden Valley Manufacturing Company was turning out ranch packets and bottled dressings at two large factories. They stood in Reno, Nevada, and Wheeling, Illinois. Clorox is not alone in the business. Ken's Foods, Kraft Foods and Wish-Bone also make ranch dressing. Regional cooks have added their own twists. In the Southwestern United States, New Mexican cuisine gave rise to green chile ranch, which includes green New Mexico chile pepper. Regional restaurant chains such as Dion's make and sell it. Avocado, roasted red pepper and truffle versions also exist, showing how readily the base takes on new flavors.

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• 7. A Name in Court

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  A pot of pinto beans was at the center of a federal lawsuit over salad dressing. Since the early 1930s, a brand called Ranch Style Beans had existed, and today Conagra Brands markets it. In 1975, Waples-Platter, the Texas maker and founder of Ranch Style Beans, sued Kraft Foods and General Foods for trademark infringement over their ranch style products. Waples-Platter had itself declined to enter the salad dressing market, worried about rapid spoilage. Federal judge Eldon Brooks Mahon heard the case in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1976. He ruled in favor of Waples-Platter in a lengthy opinion surveying the ranch and ranch style products of the 1970s. Many had been created to compete with Hidden Valley Ranch. Lawyers had compelled Henson himself to give a deposition about the brand's history. Mahon noted that Hidden Valley Ranch and Waples-Platter had no dispute with each other. Hidden Valley Ranch was meanwhile suing General Foods in a separate federal case in California. The Texas court addressed only whether other manufacturers could compete with Hidden Valley Ranch under the label ranch style.

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