How Hidden Valley Turned Ranch Into an American Obsessi

In the world of condiments, there can be only one king

Sure, ketchup has its place, and Chick-fil-A sauce may be a growing threat

but there's just one condiment that goes as good on pizza, burgers, wraps, and wings

as it does on carrots and lettuce, and that's creamy, dreamy ranch dressing

But how did ranch become the go-to topping for so many different foods

Today, we're investigating the history of ranch dressing. All right, let's get chugging

Cheers, I'll drink to that, bro. It was the Great Depression, and Nebraskan cowboy Steve Henson, like millions of others

abandoned the Midwest in pursuit of money elsewhere, maybe buried in a ditch or something

At the age of just 16, he rode the railways west to California

There, he worked odd jobs for over a decade to make ends meet, before he and his high school sweetheart wife, Gail Henson

eventually packed their bags and continued on. The two headed north in 1949 to find their fortunes in Alaska

At this point, Steve had become an established plumber, and he worked for three years out of Anchorage

helping to construct over 2,500 houses. Over the course of his contract

he would also often cook meals for the rest of the crew, and he developed his own unique flavor profile along the way

He'd mix mayonnaise, sour cream, and buttermilk with garlic, onions, MSG, dried parsley, salt, and pepper

You know, all the stuff you typically find at the junk drawer of the house you just rented. And though this concoction would eventually prove more valuable than anything Steve could ever hope to make as a plumber

he'd still made more money then as an Alaska contractor than he'd ever dreamed possible before

Plumbing in the Northwest Territories was a lucrative gig back then. It was the TikTok influencer of 1940s Alaska

After his three-year contract was up, Steve decided to retire at the ripe old age of 35

He and Gail headed back south, where pipes don't freeze nearly as often. They moved to Santa Barbara, where the two kicked back and relaxed

For about a year, Steve quickly became restless. He realized that he still had a lot of life left to live, and he wasn't quite ready for a perpetual vacation

Why not spit in the face of everyone who has to work until the day they drop dead? So they bought a fixer-upper, a run-down 120-acre ranch near San Marcos Pass, just northwest of Santa Barbara

They initially named it Sweetwater Ranch, which sounds like what an alien would call a soda fountain

But Stephen Gale quickly changed Sweetwater to Hidden Valley, and we got our story back on track

Stephen Gale soon opened their ranch up to guests, and it gained a reputation as a party hub

A place where people could let loose and have a good time. What happens in Hidden Valley stays in Hidden Valley

One visiting filmmaker described it as a mixture between a night club, a motel, and a dude ranch

But if people were coming for the overnight parties, they were staying for the steaks

Gale would serve as many as 300 steaks per party before sitting down at the couple organ to serenade their guests which presumably means that every young cow learns about Gail in history class These were no ordinary steaks though They were made with the flavor profile

Steve had cooked up in Alaska. They were a huge success, and soon everyone

wanted a taste of the Henson special. It wasn't long before the couple started sending guests home

with jars filled to the brim with a dry ingredient version of Steve's increasingly famous concoction

These jars quickly became the Mickey Mouse ears of Hidden Valley Ranch. only a little more tasty. Well, have to think of it. Has anyone actually tried eating the mouse ears

As the buzz around them grew, the couple soon found new buyers for their product

The nearby Cold Spring Tavern, a historic stagecoach stop that opened in 1868 and is

still doing business today, became the first business outside of the Hidden Valley Ranch

to sell the Henson family dressing. If you're ever looking for an authentic taste of the original

ranch recipe, Cold Spring Tavern continues to sell it to this day. They claim that they stayed

true to the original Henson family recipe, just as Steve made it all those decades ago

Back to the 1950s, though, a nearby store called Kelly's Corner also began to sell the dressing

In one two-day period, they reportedly sold out their entire stock of Hidden Valley Ranch

a 140-packet supply, leading the owner to believe his employees were stealing them off the shelves

It wasn't long before demand for the Henson family recipe began to grow outside of the Santa Barbara

area, and Steve and Gail bought up envelopes in order to mail their flavor powder all across

the nation. Sadly, mailing out a bunch of envelopes full of white powder ceased to be an

effective marketing strategy after the anthrax scare of the early aughts. At last, people could

buy the now famous Henson family recipe for a mere 75 cents per envelope, and they could have it

conveniently shipped straight to their door. Once received, customers would add their own buttermilk

or mayonnaise to the mix. Then they'd often follow the Henson family practice of putting Steve's

flavor profile on just about everything, from salad to pizza to binding legal documents

In some states, a dollop of ranch counts as a notary seal. Envelope prep and distribution rapidly overtook every last room of Hidden Valley Ranch

and by the mid-1960s, it had become the ranch's entire business. The Hensons no longer hosted guests, and the Southwest's cattle population breathed a

collective moo of relief. Instead, the Hensons used their ranch to pack and mail dry ingredient

packets to all 50 states and over 30 different countries. Their business eventually grew too big

for the family to handle alone, and they had to move production off-site by the 1970s. At that

point, the powder was made in San Jose's Griffith Laboratories before heading down to a Los Angeles

facility for packaging and distribution. There, the power of industry could stuff and seal 35,000

individual packets of Hidden Valley Ranch every eight hours, give or take the time each employee

presumably spent railing lines of uncut ranch powder. But the actual ranch remained the business's

corporate headquarters for the remaining years of the Henson's involvement. In 1972, Stephen Gale

sold their business to the Clorox Company for $8 million, almost $60 million in today's money

Stephen Gale were both now over 50 so this time the two finally retired for real They moved Reno and they spent the rest of their days soaking up the desert sun and eating Cobb salads

But there was no rest for Steve Henson's brainchild. With his recipe in hand, the Clorox Company

moved to capitalize on their newly acquired brand. They quickly found a way to add buttermilk flavoring

to their dry ingredient packets. But they knew that if they wanted to compete

with other popular vinegar-based salad dressings, they needed to find a way to sell their ranch in a liquid form

The only problem was they didn't know how to keep the perishable ingredients of ranch dressing from spoiling

Try eating it all really fast. That usually works. Clorox put a group of the nation's finest minds to work

And by replacing some of the dressing's more perishable ingredients with oils and soy byproducts

they created the dressing's first shelf-stable form. Their new liquid ranch dressing, with a shelf life of up to 150 days, finally hit stores in 1983

What followed was an explosion of American ingenuity, unrivaled since Edison and Tesla duked things out at the turn of the 20th century

Recipes cannot be copyrighted, and so Clorox had no way to keep competitors

from making their own ranch dressings or ranch-labor products. And if there was one single product that turned ranch from one hit wonder to all-time classic

it came from Frito-Lay in 1987. just four years after liquid ranch dressing first hit store shelves

That product was the Cool Ranch Dorito. Hmm, yeah. Is America falling behind in chip technology

I don't think so. For the first time, customers outside of the Henson family orbit

saw ranch as more than just a salad dressing, but as a condiment that could go on absolutely anything and everything

The chips were a hit, and Clorox, of course, wanted in on the success

Though we cannot recommend cool Clorox-flavored Doritos. The two companies collaborated to make officially branded Hidden Valley Ranch Wavy Lays potato chips

While not quite as successful as their Doritos counterpart, these chips pushed the nation off the ranchy precipice that had been climbing since 1949

And what came next was an onslaught of never-ending ranch-flavored products. By the time the 90s came around, companies were putting ranch on just about everything

Some even explored making ranch flavors all their own. For example, Chili's had their Chipotle Ranch, while Applebee's debuted their Mexi Ranch

It didn't take long for these ranch variants to make it onto grocery store shelves as well

giving ranch dressing the push it needed to surpass Italian dressing as the most popular salad dressing in America by 1992

Just two years later, Domino's Pizza would change the ranch game yet again

when they began delivering packets of ranch with every order of buffalo wings

It didn't take long for Ranch to replace blue cheese as America's buffalo chicken dip of choice

And the pairing also led many curious Americans to dip pizza into the dressing to see what would happen

Maybe it would taste great. Maybe a genie would appear. There was no way to know

And that how discoveries are made As it turned out Ranch tastes great on pizza Pizza Hut caught on to this trend and they became the first major chain to offer Ranch as a dip option for their crusts Ranch was turning up just about everywhere and being used on nearly everything

By the turn of the millennium, its rise to the top of American food lubricants was as inevitable as the changing of the seasons

in 2012 Clorox launched its hidden valley for everything campaign which sought to make ranch

dressing into the new ketchup and it took only seven years for Clorox to achieve its goal

in 2019 ranch officially surpassed ketchup as America's favorite condiment with over

1 billion dollars in U.S. sales that's a lot of hot wings and while other brands such as

Kraft, Ken's, and Newman's Own have all created their own ranch dressings. Hidden Valley Ranch

still dominates about half the U.S. market. Today, they sell 10 different bottled ranch flavors

including Original, Pickle, Avocado, Buffalo, Buttermilk, Bacon, Cucumber, Spicy Southwest, and Coleslaw. They even still sell ranch in dry packets with flavors such as Original, Spicy

Buttermilk, Zesty Alfredo, Black Pepper Parmesan, Rancho Taco, Buttermilk Chicken, and Buffalo Ranch. Ranch's domination does not stop at food. Hidden Valley knows their brand

and they've capitalized on their loyal audience. For those who want to rep their favorite creamy

dip, they sell Hidden Valley t-shirts, swimsuits, oven mitts, tablecloths, and even an elf-on-the-shelf

competitor called Ranch on a Branch. Don't worry, it's exactly as creepy. But there is still one

market that Hidden Valley has yet to tap into. Despite rumors that emerged in 2021, Hidden Valley

has never conspired with the United States government to secretly hide COVID vaccines within their products

If salad dressings are so innocent, how come they're made in a hidden valley

That ranch should be on top of a hill where we can all see it

But honestly, who wouldn't happily take a vaccine in ranch dressing form? Hidden Valley's massive success

has led inspired innovators across the nation to create their own unique ranch products

For example, while ranch dressing is most popular among Midwesterners, that hasn't stopped ranch-themed restaurants from popping up all across the country

From ranch-flavored soda to ranch-flavored ice cream, these like-minded ranch fanatics have you covered for all your ranch dressing needs

But sometimes, you want to sit down for a nice meal and enjoy your ranch buzz

Portland, Oregon is home to a popular pizza chain called Ranch, where all the square pies have been crafted specifically with ranch dipping in mind

After opening its first set of doors in 2017, the restaurant's meteoric rise has allowed it to serve pizza

out of five separate locations around the area. Over in St. Louis, a restaurant and bar called Twisted Ranch

sells 34 different kinds of ranch dressing, hopefully in shot glasses. You can buy their dressings by the eight-ounce bottle

but they also sell chic little menu items like the Twisted Mary

which is a Bloody Mary made with ranch vodka and a ranch seasoned rim

That will slap you out of a hangover every time