Don't Eat That! It's 55 Years Old!

Made you look! I'm talking about the recipe for Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.

A man named Steve Henson first created it in Alaska. (What he was doing there wasn't stated.) When he and his wife Gayle opened a dude ranch outside of Santa Barbara, CA in 1954 they named it Hidden Valley Ranch. Steve's dressing proved so popular with guests -- who wanted to take it home -- they opened a factory to make packets of the seasonings which were then mixed into equal parts mayonnaise and buttermilk.

In 1972, Clorox offered them $8 for it and they took it. In 1983, Clorox developed a dressing that didn't have to be refrigerated. Today, Clorox runs two bottling plants at factories in Reno, NV and Wheeling, IL. Competitors are thick on the supermarket shelves.

Uses for it have grown 'way past simply "salad dressing." It's now used as a dipping sauce for broccoli, carrots, radishes, fried mushrooms, fried zucchini, onion rings, hush puppies, tacos, hamburgers and baked potatoes.

Nutritionally, it isn't the best for you ("Could I have the dressing on the side, please?") A 2 T serving is 145 calories and 94% of those calories come from fat.

Bon Appetit, in this month's edition suggests beating it into mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Being their usual helpful selves, they give the recipe to make it from scratch.

RANCH DRESSING
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 T finely-chopped chives
3 T finely-chopped parsley
1 teas. garlic salt
1/2 teas. onion powder
pinch of black pepper

Beat together and refrigrate.

This is what I think Old Tony's on the Pier used on their house salad -- 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup buttermilk and black pepper. Their house salad was iceberg lettuce, diced hardboiled egg and little tiny river shrimp and I loved it.