The Secrets of Ranch Dressing, America's Sauce

In 2026, the world came to the USA, 'discovered' our Ranch, and loved it. Here's what makes it so irresistible.

For anyone who pays attention to food culture, it felt like a bizarre turning point in history. Visitors to the United States, drawn to the country by World Cup soccer matches, were suddenly posting glowing reviews of American food on their social media feeds. And the belle of the ball, their cause celebre, the star of the show was…… ranch dressing.

The media couldn’t believe it. CNN reported that “They came for the soccer. They fell in love with ranch dressing.” The Atlantic called ranch “America’s Greatest Food Export”. And- the best detail of them all- Kraft promised to introduce a TSA compliant package of ranch that travelers could take home.

American food lovers took a victory lap. We’ve become accustomed to taking heat for our unhealthy food habits, and ranch is often used as a symbol of vulgar, high-calorie, excessive American cuisine. So to have our beloved national dressing (and, yes, I would argue ranch is now the national standard) celebrated by international soccer fans felt like redemption.

But why? Why do Americans love ranch, and why have visitors embraced it so? It’s an interesting story about history, entrepreneurship, and flavor. And a touch of mayonnaise. Here we go.

A Brief History of Salad Dressing

I’ve written about this before, but to review: the ancient Babylonians were the first to dress raw greens with olive oil, vinegar, salt and spice. The Greeks and Romans picked up the habit, and this combination of something fatty (olive oil), something sour (vinegar), something salty (salt), and something spicy (pepper, herbs, etc) became the de facto standard for “dressing” raw vegetables. The Romans popularized the eating of salads throughout its empire, however there was a problem: olive oil is a product of the warm Mediterranean climate; it’s hard to find in the far-northern Roman provinces of Brittania and Germania. The answer was to substitute dairy fat for olive oil- leading to the famous “butter/olive oil divide”, wherein Southern European countries rely on olive oil for fat, and Northern European countries rely on dairy for their fats. Naturally, Northern Europeans began using cream instead of oil in their salad dressings, creating a cream-based dressing style popular in Germany and England. Many of the first immigrants to the United States were from Northern Europe, and thus brought cream-style dressings with them. On the prairies of the Western frontier, vinegar was also scarce, but the substitute was sour milk, in the form of buttermilk or sour cream. Dairy-based salad dressings were standard fare in England, Germany, and the United States.

The cream-dressing world and the oil-dressing world were bridged by a French chef in 1756 in Mahon, Spain. Wanting cream fraiche for a recipe but lacking it on the Mediterranean island, the chef emulsified olive oil, egg yolks, and a bit of vinegar, creating a cream-like substance eventually called mayonnaise (after “Mahon”). Mayonnaise was an oil-based sauce in the guise of a cream-based sauce, and was a perfect salad dressing. Mayo became the elite choice for salads, while commoners in America, England and Germany ate cream-based dressings (and French and Italian commoners ate oil-and-vinegar.) On the great American frontier, salad dressings made from cream, eggs, sour buttermilk, salt and pepper were common. As mayonnaise became more common, Americans naturally began including it in their dressing recipes, generally as an adjunct for cream, which was exactly what it was intended to do.

The Invention of “Ranch”

Enter Steve Henson. Henson was the kind of person my mom would call a “real character”. After growing up in rural Nebraska, he set out to find success in Alaska. He found it, establishing a successful construction and plumbing contracting company, which he sold for a tidy profit. Like many who make their fortune in northern climes, Steve and his wife decided to retire in California, buying a 120-acre property north of Santa Barbara. He called it the Hidden Valley Ranch and, ever the entrepreneur, turned it into a destination- a “guest ranch” where people could go for the weekend. By all accounts, Henson was a pretty good cook, a skill he said he picked up in Alaska. He was also a storyteller, and with a flourish he would serve the dressing he “invented”. In truth, it was a pretty standard buttermilk dressing of the kind Steve would have grown up with in Nebraska. But Henson added some garlic and parsley along with a pinch of MSG and BAM, he had created the Hidden Valley Ranch’s secret dressing. Guests loved the dressing, which would have been unfamiliar to Californians at the time- the buttermilk dressing seemed like cowboy food from the frontier. Knowing he had a good thing, he started selling his dressing recipe to local restaurants and packaging it for stores. He then developed a powdered mix, ready to be combined with buttermilk and mayonnaise. By the 1960s, Henson had set up a factory in Santa Barbara to sell his “Ranch” dressing, and the rest is history.

Why Does Ranch Taste So Good?

The thing to remember is that ranch dressing follows the essential rules of dressing flavor construction, established since Babylonian times: something fatty, something sour, something salty and something spicy. Henson’s dressing sticks to that formula: fatty mayonnaise (made from oil and egg yolks), sour buttermilk (more on that in a bit), salt, with garlic, herbs, and MSG for flavor. Let’s walk through each of these:

Mayonnaise is mainly vegetable oil, aka “salad oil”: about 80% of supermarket mayo is the same kind of oil you’d use in a vinaigrette. The second most important ingredient is egg yolks. Here’s why: the fat in egg yolks is already emulsified- that is, there are bits of fat in suspension. Mixing egg yolks with oil allows the oil to emulsify too, and when mixed with water and vinegar makes that familiar texture, very much like thick cream. We have evolved a well-developed craving for fatty foods: when our ancestors encountered fat in the wild, it was a wonderful source of calories and essential fatty acids. Scientists have discovered that we actually have something approximating a sixth taste sensation called oleogustus, or “fat taste” that, in combination with the uniquely coating sensation of fats in the mouth, stimulate powerful positive emotions. Whether the olive oil in Italian dressing, a greasy french fry, a fatty piece of bacon, or a spoonful of mayo, our palates love fat, especially when balanced with another taste modality like sourness.

Unlike most dressings, Ranch gets its sourness from buttermilk, an ingredient that confuses almost everyone. The problem is the word refers to two completely different things- but I’m here to clear it up for you. In the olden days, farmers had to do a lot of work to preserve the milk that came from their cows. Most was made into cheese, which required curdling, straining, salting, and aging. Some milk could be churned into butter, which was another difficult chore. Usually, the creamiest milk was held behind from cheesemaking and set aside for butter-making. This milk would sour a little bit from the same kind microorganisms that turn milk into yogurt. This thicker slightly sour milk, intended for butter-making, was called “butter milk”. Once the butter was churned, the leftover sour milk fluid, with all its cream removed, was also called “buttermilk”. Sometimes this second kind of buttermilk had flecks of butter floating in it. Both could be used for cooking and drinking, and in the old days, buttermilk was usually sour. (Some butter is still made from sour milk- and is called “cultured butter” as opposed to the more common “sweet butter”). Today, the kind of buttermilk you’ll find in the store is the first kind: it’s milk that has been intentionally soured and thickened using a microbial culture. The sourness comes from lactic acid, which is secreted by bacteria like Lactococcus lactis and is the same thing that makes yogurts and cheeses tart. We love the flavor of lactic acid with cream- it’s why we love sharp cheese, yogurt, and kefir. And since mayonnaise is creamy, the mayo-buttermilk combo hits our pleasure sensors.

We know why we like salt- it balances the flavor well. Ranch dressing includes a hit of garlic, which was Henson’s creative move: a bit of garlic adds interest and savory depth to a pretty bland mayo-buttermilk sauce. He also added MSG- a source of the amino acid glutamate that creates the sensation known as umami. Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and bacon are all rich in umami, so its presence in ranch dressing is welcome- it lends its savory richness to the sauce.

The Rise of Ranch as the New American Sauce

Henson launched Hidden Valley Ranch in the 1950s, and it rose in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, a time when Little House on the Prairie and the Waltons, two period dramas based in the rural Western plains, were at the top of TV and country artists John Denver and Dolly Parton were topping the charts. In other words, Ranch dressing fit in with a vision of the American West- real or imagined- that was rooted in homestyle recipes, old fashioned ingredients like buttermilk, and a lifestyle that included places like farms and ranches. Pretty soon, people began using it for more than a salad dressing- it found a place as a dip for raw vegetables, a party snack that fit in with 1970s and 1980s sensibilities. And it was easy for Americans throughout the country to embrace Ranch- it was mild enough for everyone to like, it didn’t separate like oil and vinegar, it wasn’t old-school like Bleu Cheese and Thousand Island, and it felt like ‘ours’. And don’t forget- Americans in the Midwest and West had been enjoying buttermilk dressings for more than a hundred years anyway. Soon, young people began to dip their pizza crusts, chicken wings, and french fries in Ranch. Sales skyrocketed, and every dressing company created their version of Hidden Valley’s recipe, establishing “Ranch” as a dressing style rather than a specific brand.

Ranch Becomes a Flavor

In the 1970s, Hidden Valley figured out a way to simplify Ranch preparation even further. The original mix required home cooks to add it to mayonnaise and buttermilk. It was easy, sure, but most people didn’t have buttermilk on hand. So Hidden Valley, in a genius move, added dried, powdered buttermilk to their mix. Now, you could mix the powder with mayo and plain milk, and get the same flavor. But there was an unexpected bonus: with the addition of tangy-tasting buttermilk powder to the mix, you could now add full-on ranch flavor to anything just by sprinkling the powder on. People started coating chicken and roast potatoes in ranch mix, using it as a kind of spice. And it didn’t take long for snack giant Frito-Lay to notice. In the 1980s, they used a buttermilk-garlic-MSG powder to coat Doritos, creating a new “Cool Ranch” flavor. Ranch had jumped categories from a sauce to a flavor profile.

We’re Ranch Country Now

Even though Ranch dressing has been around for over 70 years now, and is based on a 200 year old tradition, it’s reaching its peak of popularity at this very moment. Ranch pushed through a period of disdain in the early 2000s and has been embraced unironically by new generations of American eaters. My own 11 year old son came home begging to be taken to a wings shop because he had heard the restaurant served Ranch that “tastes like heaven”. In 2024, the impossible happened- Ranch sales topped sales of ketchup in the United States. Just in time for the World Cup, Ranch had become America’s Sauce.

So why are we surprised when visitors turn out to LOVE our Ranch? The style is based on European cream-based dressings anyway, but with an extra bump of flavor. It’s tangy, salty, garlicky, creamy, and umami; an irresistible combination.

Making Ranch

When I was a kid, my mom bought packets of Henson’s Ranch mix and combined them with mayonnaise and buttermilk. Nowadays, most people buy Ranch in bottles, but I feel those have an inferior, gel-like texture. Truth is, you can make Ranch at home very easily. Henson’s original recipe was:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon powdered garlic

a pinch of MSG

salt, pepper, and dried parsley to taste.

Shake or stir thoroughly, let sit for at least 15 minutes and serve.

That’s it! Don’t want to buy buttermilk? Yogurt or sour cream mixed with a little milk is a good substitute. Don’t have MSG on hand? Skip it, it’s fine. You can add a bit of powdered onion for extra flavor. I like to put extra herbs in mine, it makes me feel fancy.

note: Thanks to readers Anjana and Marty for the story suggestion!