
Ranch Nation - NaOH
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/dining/ranch-dressing-history.html
======
niftich
In 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_dr...](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/number_1/2005/08/ranch_dressing.html)
[3] [https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/blog/this-day-in-clorox-
his...](https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/blog/this-day-in-clorox-history-we-
buy-hidden-valley-ranch/)

~~~
chris_mc
>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-re...](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)

~~~
mrslave
In the book The Hidden Persuaders (1957) by Vance Packard he describes
research into failing pre-made products that revealed the buyers (homemakers)
felt less self-worth if they weren't required to undertake at least some of
the preparation. (IIRC cake mixture was the case study.)

There was also a similar response by pharmacists when drugs first appeared on
the market requiring no preparation.

------
rdtsc
> 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.

------
vram22
Let'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).

------
bovermyer
Ranch is a gateway.

If you really want an eye-opening flavor experience, try dipping pizza in toum
(Lebanese garlic sauce).

~~~
pizza
Toum + olive oil + a little salt is also great for marinating grilled chicken
in. Thanks because TIL its name!

------
elipsey
Working 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.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
I 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.

------
empath75
We very nearly had a ranch fountain at our wedding but decided against it...

------
d--b
As 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.

~~~
tptacek
Explain, then, the Caesar salad, king of all salads.

~~~
d--b
Well, I really dislike the Caesar salad, for obvious reasons stated above.

But maybe an explanation for its success is that it's fried chicken with dip
"disguised as a salad". The salad in the caesar salad is just to pretend it's
healthy.

Also the name kind of rules

~~~
tptacek
There is no chicken in a Caesar salad, let alone fried chicken. Where are you
eating? Is this something they serve at Cheesecake Factory?

It's named for the dude who came up with it, for whatever that's worth to you.

~~~
amyjess
Chicken Caesar salad is wildly popular in the US, and it's probably far more
popular than original-style Caesar salad.

I'd even go as far as to say that Caesar salad has become something like
pizza, where the assumption is that _of course_ you put toppings on it.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Chicken Caesar salad is wildly popular in the US, and it's probably far more
> popular than original-style Caesar salad.

Chicken Caesar is, for fairly obvious reasons, far more popular than
traditional Caesar as a standalone meal, but it's probably far less popular
than traditional (or, at least, not featuring chunks of meat) Caesar overall.

------
tptacek
"and the pasta sauce “Alfredo” served at places like Olive Garden"

Shots fired!

------
gascan
I 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.

------
crispyambulance
It 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
I would say the defining quality of ranch is that it contains buttermilk,
unlike most mayonnaise-based dressings.

------
0x8BADF00D
Legalize ranch

------
jzymbaluk
This article's got me jonesing for some Ranch now

------
nix0n
It is wrong to eat chicken wings with ranch: they can be eaten undipped or
with blue cheese dressing.

------
balt_s
In the decades to come, men will look back on articles such as this and curse
the existence of we moderns for our extravagant wastefulness.

~~~
emaginniss
I bet you're fun at parties.

~~~
nkurz
Whenever 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
I absolutely loved that movie. It was so much more than I expected that I
couldn't stop watching it.

