a sauceRanch dressing

A savoury creamy dressing of buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, black pepper and herbs — commonly chives, parsley and dill — mixed into mayonnaise or another oil emulsion. Sour cream and yogurt sometimes stand in for the buttermilk or the mayonnaise. It has been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992, when it passed Italian, and it is the most popular wing dip in the country.

Steve Henson made the first version in the early 1950s in the Anchorage area, where he worked as a plumbing contractor and cooked for his crews. He retired from plumbing at thirty-five, moved with his wife Gayle to Santa Barbara County, California, and in 1956 bought a guest ranch in San Marcos Pass which he renamed Hidden Valley Ranch. He served the dressing at the ranch steakhouse; guests bought jars to take home. His friend Audrey Ovington, owner of Cold Spring Tavern, was the first commercial customer. By 1957 he was selling packets of mix in stores, and mail-ordering the dry ingredients at 75 cents apiece until every room in the house was given over to it.

The Hensons incorporated, built a factory, and sold nationally. Manufacturing moved to San Jose, then Colorado, then Sparks, Nevada in 1972. In October 1972 Clorox bought Hidden Valley Ranch for $8 million and Henson retired. Clorox reformulated it several times — adding buttermilk flavouring to the seasoning so the dressing could be made with cheaper regular milk — and in 1983 developed a shelf-stable bottled version.

The name started a fight. Ranch Style Beans had been on sale since the early 1930s, and in 1975 its Texas maker Waples-Platter sued Kraft Foods and General Foods for using "ranch style" on salad dressings. Judge Eldon Brooks Mahon tried the case in Fort Worth in 1976 and ruled for Waples-Platter; his opinion catalogues the ranch and ranch-style products then on the market, most of them built to compete with Hidden Valley. Henson himself was deposed about the history.

It reached the wing through pizza. Domino's began offering ranch as a condiment with its chicken wings and pizzas in 1994, and the pairing took. Cool Ranch Doritos had arrived in 1987; Hidden Valley Ranch Wavy Lay's in 1994.

Cold, in a cup, beside the wing. Home versions mix buttermilk, mayonnaise and sour cream with lemon juice, minced garlic, onion powder, black pepper and dried herbs, and want an hour in the refrigerator before the herbs give anything up. It doubles as the dip for the celery and carrots and as the dressing on the salad nobody ordered.

Best-selling dressing in the country and, by the count in the standard wing description, the most popular wing dip. In 2017 a study by the Association for Dressings and Sauces found 40% of Americans named ranch their favourite dressing. As of 16 September 2026 the USDA label panel for Hidden Valley Original Ranch Topping & Dip reads 240 mg sodium and 1 g sugar in a 2-tablespoon serving — 120 mg and 0.5 g in one tablespoon. Soybean oil first, egg yolk third, buttermilk sixth. No Scoville number, and nothing on the label to warrant one.