As you point out, it's not. But who knows, maybe it is at the Olive Garden. ;)

glad you got out of the elevator,,,

Analise lays down the ace with a cross-thread reference .....

... and nytango trumps with a cross-forum reference.

This is why FT is more fun than work. I just wish it paid as well. :(

That's nice to know. :D

Duplicate. Whoops!

Ranch is great on the side salads served with dinner plates at many Mexican restaurants. Unlike blue cheese dressing or any of the others, Ranch does not compete with the many good Mexican flavors in the other items.

Ranch is good anytime you want a blander accompaniment to fried foods or veggies. Cheap ranch dressing on Carl's Jr Crisscut Fries is excellent!

I love it!!!

Love it on french fries, tater tots, cheese sticks, potato chips, great on burgers, zucchini stix. I aint found much it aint good on, its even the way I prefer my pizza with a ranch base instead of the typical ikky red sauce.

Bring on the Ranch...WooHoo....

I used to work with an older guy that was rather fun loving. He took a small group to Lou Malnati's in Chicago for deep dish pizza for lunch one day. One of his buddies, Darnel, couldn't go, so he brought back the pizza "bones" for him. What a laugh we all got. Thanks for making me remember.

That said, for those who add hot sauce to ranch, I tried Safeway's Jalapeño Ranch Dressing. Had a nice kick with a chile flavor and the great taste of ranch!

I'm not a big fan of ranch dressing - I much prefer a good blue cheese or failing that, Thousand Island or honey mustard. But I have to eat more salad and less carbs because of my blood sugar, so I've relented and bought some Newman's for variety. I don't like most bottled blue cheese dressings (stuff like Kraft "Roka" :puke:), so at only 2g of carbs per tablespoon, the ranch will suffice.

I'm with you, I hate Ranch.

If I get any salad (besides Caesar) its either vinigrette or Italian that goes on it.

I've never been a big fan of ranch - celery cries out for bleu cheese and wings cry out for more sauce - but after reading this thread, I think I'll skip it altogether.

There's a novel concept.

This could be because Ranch has so many uses, but I have heard that it is the best selling salad dressing.

Ranch is over rated...better than nothing though. How about that Honey Mustard...it's the best. :)

Probably cuz that's the only way to get a lot of kids to eat salad and veggies once they're out of toddlerhood. :(

i know i have said this before, but RANCH IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD!! I despise ranch. my sister in law eats everything with ranch. i prefer 1000 island.

But don't you find it frustrating that all Ranch tastes like Ranch - yes, some are better than others, but they all pretty much have the same flavor? Yet,
Thousand Island can be wonderful or really bad and the flavor varies tremendously from brand to brand. I really like good Thousand Island dressing, but buying it or ordering it does not guarantee that I'll get anything I like. If I order or buy Ranch, I know what it is going to taste like.

Ranch can be anything from bland gross stuff to very sublime and flavorful. If it's in a package or came from a package, chances are, it sucks. It's not one of my favorite dressings but will do if my choices are "Thousand Island, Ranch, Italian, and Bleu Cheese". I find bad Blue Cheese dressing FAR FAR more offensive than bad ranch. Peppercorn ranch is a nice twist and can be very very tasty. My favorite though, is Caesar dressing. Gotta second the Ken's vote. I ALWAYS have a bottle in the fridge. Makes plain 'ol Iceberg taste awesome.

I don't mind ranch dressing where I would otherwise use butter (A baked potato) but on a salad it doesn't work for me at all. I usally go with lemon herb.

all ranch tastes the same to me, ranch is ranch. i agree with the hit or miss 1000 island. alot of people dont like the "chunks".

Ranch dressing goes great with: fried cheese, fried zucchini, fried mushrooms, curly fries (all other fries go better with mayo but onion rings go with ketchup), and really thick tortilla chips (but alternating with salsa on some, ranch on others).

Buffalo wings are always eaten with blue cheese. Buffalo tenders, however, have trouble holding the chunks and sometimes are better with ranch.

The best ranch is to get a side of wing sauce and mix the wing sauce into the ranch. That also works well with blue cheese dressing.

None of these things are on my dietary plan... but I know from experience that they taste good.

Oh, and only eat ranch where they MAKE the dressing. Homemade ranch is TEN times (or more) better than the acidic crud. I won't eat ranch out of hte bottle.

The Salad Dressing Thread
 

I LOVE RANCH! And who doesn't? Now, why is it that the ranch in most restaurants a) taste the same, and b) can't be found anywhere else (e.g., the market)?

In general, I like creamy vs. oil/vinegar based, though I do like the occasional olive oil and salt on my leaves. Exception: bleu cheese... bleh!

I make my own kick-butt vinegarette, with apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, herbs, and (the key) truffle oil.

No dressing, please.

A bit of salt and pepper.

And good croutons.

Salad is basically an excuse for eating croutons.

ranch dressing

I like most dressings from Ken's Steakhouse. Lite Caesar and Lit Vidalia Onion are my favorites. A good Thousand Island on well chilled greens can't be beat either.

I like ranch and oil/vinegar dressings, but my favorite is a poppyseed dressing at one of my local restaurants. I can't find it anywhere and haven't tried to make it yet.

Lazy cook here: I was just wondering about a decent bottled ranch dressing to use as a base for chipotle/lime dressing--yum! Ken's? Newman's? Marie's?

For me I would take that creamy japanese sesame seeds dressing (don't know the name) or a imple olive oil and balsamic vinegar !

:eek:

I love bleu cheese dressing!! I don't like raspberry vinagarette, which so many restaurants offer these days.

^ ^ ^ Fully agree. I love bleu cheese, ranch, creamy Italian and yes, Thousand Island dressing. On US Airways the salad of mixed weeds (another topic for another day) comes with raspberry vinagarette. YUCK !

I'll second blue cheese. I usually use Ken's. Sweet blue cheese dressing is a turn-off, especially with buffalo wings.

I haven't made my own in awhile. Since I'm off this week for Spring Break, it gives me an excuse.

I also like Catalina type French. I can't use most of them as they are often made anymore with high fructose corn syrup which I can't have with a corn intolerance. WalMart's brand of Honey French still uses sugar instead.

Catalina French is particularly good if you put some cottage cheese on your salad before using the dressing... and then the croûtons. :)

I like Maries Bleu cheese, its a little expensive and deinitely not for the calorie challenged.

I'm strange in that blue cheese is the only salad dressing I don't like. I like several others including raspberry vinagarette. I like more salad than dressing so usually have it on the side. My husband's favorite is blue cheese.

I loosely follow Dr. Oz's diet book and avoid high fructose corn syrup whenever possible.

A little freshly squeezed lime juice and some decent olive oil: that's all you need. I can't abide any dressing beyond that: particularly not vinaigrettes.

I agree that a simple homemade dressing is good. I like mixing lemon joice, olive oil and fresh herbs.

There's a Thai place near my home that has delicious warm peanut dressing they drizzle on salad. It's not heavy like peanut sauce.

Green Goddess - an old favorite that is not overly sweet

There are three dressings as far as I'm concerned:

(1) Ranch
(2) Oil & vinegar (and some salt & pepper)
(3) That ginger dressing they put on salads in Japanese restaurants

B-o-r-i-n-g!

Amen! (insert tambourine-banging icon here)


'Fraid I'm a honey-mustard fan, then comes creamy Italian, and (I suppose) French. Raspberry vinaigrette is ok with me, but can you say "ubiquitous"? :rolleyes:

Green Goddess. So retro, it must be chic again. Created in the '20's.

Drizzle of extra virgin Italian olive oil
Splash of a good Balsamic vinegar.
That's it!
I have never understood bottled salad dressings. The olive oil, Balsamic, a little salt and pepper is the best. Only exception to this basic dressing is the Caesar. That should only be made fresh at table-side in a wood salad bowl.

I'm in the same boat, less is more. And to add an European twist, the yoghurt sauces served at Greek/Turkish places on the continent do fit quite well with a feta based farmer's salad.