How to Make Ranch Dressing

This is a two part blog.  It’s easy to find a recipe for Ranch dressing on line.  It’s even easier if you buy our Ranch dressing seasoning.  Then the recipe becomes:

1 cup mayonnaise

1cup buttermilk

2 tsp Ranch dressing seasoning (or to taste)

Easy enough.  If you use sour cream instead of buttermilk, you have chip dip.

OK…  so it’s easy to see why this is a two part blog.  The first part is rather short, isn’t it?

 

Let’s talk about the “why” make your own Ranch Dressing.  First of all, it is cheaper than buying the real stuff.  There is nothing easier than buying a bottle of salad dressing from the store, so in a sense you are trading economy for convenience.  On the other hand, it is not difficult to make Ranch dressing from scratch.  My preferred method is to take a pint jar, fill it about half way with buttermilk, add the seasoning mix, and shake to blend well.  Then I add the mayonnaise and shake or stir until it is completely mixed. 

Now let’s talk about the savings.  Calculating the cost difference between commercial Ranch dressing and home made is not simple because there are many different brands and sizes of Ranch dressing.  Do I go with the cheapest?  The original?  Store brand?   The same is true for mayonnaise.  I could use a small squeeze bottle for my per ounce price or a quart?  In fact, I could make the results come out any way I want with the right choices.   I went to my local Food Lion here in Dinwiddie, VA, and compared large containers of name brand products.  Then I normalized the prices to our recipe scale of 16 oz for easy comparison.  Here they are:

Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, 36 oz bottle; $6.99;  16 oz= $3.10

Hellman's Mayonnaise, 30 oz bottle; $3.39;  16 oz= $1.81

Pet Buttermilk, 64 oz carton (1/2 gallon), $3.60;  16 oz= $0.90

The cost of 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup buttermilk is (1.81 + 0.90)/2 or $1.36.  Adding in the spice blend brings the cost of your homemade Ranch dressing to about half of store bought.

Now, here is where things get interesting.  Price is always a factor in the retail world, but we look at other things as well.  Is it healthy?  Is it fresh and natural?  How are the ingredients sourced?  If a food item is filled with ingredients you cannot pronounce, you won’t find it on our shelves.  If something containing eggs and buttermilk is shelf stable for months, it’s a red flag for us.  You see, in order to make truly authentic Hidden Valley dressing you also need to add phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, modified food starch, monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial flavors, disodium phosphate, sorbic acid, and disodium inosinate. Here is a link to the full ingredient list and a commentary for each.

http://blog.fooducate.com/2009/05/07/inside-the-label-ranch-dressing/

Hellmans mayonnaise only has one slightly unpronounceable ingredient, calcium disodium EDTA.  This is a chelating agent, a stabilizer which is innocuous.  If you look up chelation therapy, you will find EDTA is used.  Buttermilk is simply buttermilk.

So making your own dressing is cheaper and better for you.  Can we go further?  Yes!  We can take this process a step further and make our own mayonnaise.  {gasp! We can?}  Mayonnaise is nothing more than egg yolks, vegetable oil, and vinegar with spices to taste.  Now this opens up a whole lot more options.  Do we really want to use soybean oil?  Or corn oil?  Let’s use olive oil instead, maybe a bit of fish oil or flax seed oil mixed in.  While we are at it, let’s use free range eggs instead of the factory farm variety.  Here is an easy recipe for mayonnaise.  The basic recipe is 4 egg yolks, 2 cups oil oil, and 1 tbsp wine vinegar.  The dry mustard, salt, and pepper are optional.  Of course, you can always sneak in some really healthful spices like turmeric.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mayonnaise_90223