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Ranch Nation
- empath75 8y agoWe very nearly had a ranch fountain at our wedding but decided against it...
- rdtsc 8y ago> Ranch is most popular in the Midwest, according to the Association of Dressings and Sauces. I believe that. I've seen it brought to the table there in Mexican restaurants alongside free salsa without even asking. They just assume you'd want it. At first I thought "Oh free queso, great", but no, just ranch. > Valley Ranch is no more. Steve Henson sold the brand to the Clorox company in 1972 for $8 million; There is something ironic about what used to be chemical company known for selling bleach (at that time) to owning the most iconic American ranch dressing.
- balt_s 8y agoIn the decades to come, men will look back on articles such as this and curse the existence of we moderns for our extravagant wastefulness.
- unit91 8y agoDoubtful. Historically, spice trade has played a major role in nation-building. Still does. One example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade
- Sargos 8y agoIn the future we will have even more abundant resources so I'm not sure they care that we like to invent good dipping sauces.
- emaginniss 8y agoI bet you're fun at parties.
- unit91 8y agoToo far.
- nkurz 8y agoWhenever someone uses that phrase, I now tend to picture this beautiful monologue by Will Oldham in the movie "A Ghost Story": https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6bs2o5 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6bs2o5 It's long and depressing (what do you expect for a downer monologue at a party?) but I think worth you while to watch, so that you too can have a comparison point for the future.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y agoI absolutely loved that movie. It was so much more than I expected that I couldn't stop watching it.
- tptacek 8y agoI love the idea that where we went too far was in adding herbs to our sour cream lightened with buttermilk. We've all flown too high on borrowed wings!
- ranchthrowaway 8y agoThis is why Americans have no culture.
- niftich 8y agoIn 1957 Procter & Gamble bought Clorox Chemical Company, which at the time made only bleach. The Federal Trade Commission challenged the merger on anticompetitive grounds -- specifically, that ownership by dominant conglomerate that makes soap, detergent, and cleaners, and spends enormous amounts on advertising, would dissuade other entrants to the liquid bleach market, a chemically bland product whose marketshare nonetheless appeared to correlate with advertising -- and ordered them to divest Clorox. A prolonged court battle ensued, eventually decided by the Supreme Court in 1967 [1], which held that they indeed must divest. The new, but still Oakland-based Clorox then embarked on a plan to be a little brother to P&G, acquiring a diverse array of marketable brands -- many cleaners, but also Hidden Valley Ranch in 1972, at the time still a hometown California phenomenon, and still a dry packet of mix to which consumers had to add buttermilk to make [2]. Clorox first reformulated the dry mix such that it could be made with milk, then in 1983 they began selling a premade, shelf-stable bottle of it [2], which was instrumental in helping it attain the popularity it has today. Clorox has a very approachable blog entry [3] about Hidden Valley Ranch, where Curtis Stettler, a former longtime product developers for KC Masterpiece and Hidden Valley, recounts the history of the product line from pre-acquision to today, covering some wacky 90s flavors along the way, and insider comments that recount flavors surviving decades of branding renames, and frustrations with bacon bits trying to poke through the packaging. [1] https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/386/568.html https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/386/568.html [2] http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/number_1/2005/08/ranch_dressing.html http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/number_1/2005/08/ranch_dr... [3] https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/blog/this-day-in-clorox-history-we-buy-hidden-valley-ranch/ https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/blog/this-day-in-clorox-his...
- chris_mc 8y ago>then in 1983 they began selling a premade, shelf-stable bottle of it I was born in '83 and I still remember my mom mixing ranch dressing by hand in a special ranch dressing mixing bottle [0] that they sold. I always wondered why she mixed it by hand back then. [0] (image of bottle a few screens down): https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-ranch-dressing-served-at-restaurants-the-most-delicious-I-can-t-find-anything-even-close-in-a-bottle https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-ranch-dressing-served-at-re...
- jzymbaluk 8y agoThis article's got me jonesing for some Ranch now
- d--b 8y agoAs a European I don't understand this. Here, salad is merely consumed as an "oil delivery device", it's all about the dressing. So, accordingly, not one bit of salad should remain dry. Ranch is thick, therefore annoying to use on salad, because it doesn't drench the whole thing. Unless you shake the salad, you'll have plenty of dry leaves. ewwww. Pretty good with fries though.
- bovermyer 8y agoInteresting perspective on salad. However, ranch has long transcended salad. The article goes pretty into depth on the varieties of things it's used with.
- scott_s 8y agoI use a small amount of dressing, but I also want it on the whole salad. So I spent time mixing it. Shaking would be ideal, but I don't have a container, just a bowl, so mixing has to do. It takes a minute, but it's not hard. As an aside, I use way less dressing than I did as a kid, and less than most people I see. Now, veggies drowning in dressing grosses me out. I just want a little bit of the flavor on the veggies.
- dekhn 8y agoIn general, one must toss a salad to get good dressing distribution when the dressing is viscous. Also, having lived in California for a while, I've grown to like eating greens like frisee without any dressing at all.
- d--b 8y agoyeah, tossing, I've done it a bunch, and it's true that the thousand islands dressing with chicken salad does work. Frisee without any dressing though, I don't know how you manage. It tickles the tonsils in all the most unpleasant ways.
- lghh 8y agoI actually can't stand non-oil dressings on salad, but eat ranch on literally anything that has the potential to be greasy.
- crispyambulance 8y agoIt is popular in rural PA as well, literally the #1 condiment. For the non-American's out there "Ranch" is basically an oily, less flavorful version of Tzatziki, where the white stuff is based on mayonnaise rather than greek yogurt.
- djur 8y agoI would say the defining quality of ranch is that it contains buttermilk, unlike most mayonnaise-based dressings.
- nerdnumerouno 8y agoYep, parent has no idea what ranch is.
- moron4hire 8y agoI grew up in rural PA and ranch was not "literally the #1 condiment". There is an urban anti-ranch sentiment that sees it as too provincial to be cool. Once you subtract that sentiment, rural PA does not eat more ranch dressing than the rest of the country.
- ryanianian 8y agoI wouldn't consider ranch to be oily. Maybe _fattier_ if it's made from sour cream and buttermilk, but if it's oily it's probably not well-mixed or in the right ratio. Or go for "Greek-American Fusion": My favorite "ranch" is the dried hidden-valley ranch packets mixed with greek yogurt. Sometimes throw in some cucumbers and garilc from the food-processor. Excellent on spicy gyro meat, salads, pizza, basically everything.
- rayiner 8y agoRanch >> Tzatziki.
- NikolaeVarius 8y agoI heavily disagree with the less flavorful.Tzatziki is great but it was never meant to be a flavor bomb like ranch
- bovermyer 8y agoRanch is a gateway. If you really want an eye-opening flavor experience, try dipping pizza in toum (Lebanese garlic sauce).
- inferiorhuman 8y ago> If you really want an eye-opening flavor experience, try dipping pizza in toum (Lebanese garlic sauce). For more fun, try Lebanese pizza a la Manoosh in New South Wales.
- alexkavon 8y agoTuom is excellent. Also great on fries and falafel of course.
- dfee 8y agoMy experience as an American with NE European heritage is that any “food” of the Mediterranean is amazing.
- mturmon 8y agoToum is familiar in southern CA as the garlic sauce given out at Zankou chicken.
- pizza 8y agoToum + olive oil + a little salt is also great for marinating grilled chicken in. Thanks because TIL its name!
- ghostbrainalpha 8y agoRanch is a gateway to many places.... But it generally doesn't lead to experimenting with exotic foods from other cultures. I'm not saying Ranch is a racist white person sauce. I'm just saying look elsewhere for the entrance to flavor town.
- tptacek 8y ago"and the pasta sauce “Alfredo” served at places like Olive Garden" Shots fired!
- vram22 8y agoLet's have more food-related threads on HN now and then, people :) I have been wishing there were more of those here for some time. They can be pretty interesting, not just to read but to try out the stuff. I remember one of the earliest ones I saw here, titled something like "What are your food hacks?" [1]. It was a good one. IIRC, PG also chipped in with a recipe for rice and beans for ramen-profitable (or yet to be that) startups. The punch line was "put <the stuff> in the cooker and forget about it" :) - where <stuff> was rice and beans, and some condiments, like salt, oil, pepper, whatever. [1] Probably can still find that one via hn.algolia.com or the search box at the bottom of the HN page (which uses algolia).
- gascan 8y agoI looked it up, and I guess I have to say I'm impressed it's not been reformulated into a mix of corn & soy product.
- 0x8BADF00D 8y agoLegalize ranch
- nix0n 8y agoIt is wrong to eat chicken wings with ranch: they can be eaten undipped or with blue cheese dressing.
- elipsey 8y agoWorking in kitchens when I was younger really put me off of mayonnaise and salad oil, especially cleaning the deep fryers. I used to mix up batches of ranch starting with 5 gallon buckets of "heavy duty" grade commercial mayonnaise. Large amounts of mayonnaise still make me wince a little... When you work with these in industrial quantities, they inevitably ruin your clothes and insinuate themselves into your person. There's nothing like coming home reeking of fryer smoke and mayo for a couple of months to make you want to trade the fries for a house salad -- vinaigrette on the side please.
- dmschulman 8y agoI worked at a haunted house one summer/fall and the experience completely turned me off to ketchup for about 4 years.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoI worked in kitchens all through high school and college. I never minded the industrial food service stuff. I still have 5gal buckets that I use for things. Everything that comes out of them smells like pickles (these buckets are years old). I had a coworker who alleged that her boyfriend could taste whether she was serving on Buffalo chicken day a day later. The pay in tech is so much better that it's not even comparable but I kind of miss working in food service. Knowing how fun it isn't to stand over a grill ruined all the "we cook everything in front of you" type restaurants for me though.