Apparently the real stuff does taste good, just not what they sell. From a recent New Yorker article full text here:

This was a reflection of what might be called the Hidden Valley Ranch principle, in honor of a story that Samson Hsia often told about his years working on salad dressing when he was at Clorox. The couple who owned Hidden Valley Ranch, near Santa Barbara, had come up with a seasoning blend of salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and parsley flakes that was mixed with equal parts mayonnaise and buttermilk to make what was, by all accounts, an extraordinary dressing. Clorox tried to bottle it, but found that the buttermilk could not coexist, over any period of time, with the mayonnaise. The way to fix the problem, and preserve the texture, was to make the combination more acidic. But when you increased the acidity you ruined the flavor. Clorox's food engineers worked on Hidden Valley Ranch dressing for close to a decade. They tried different kinds of processing and stability control and endless cycles of consumer testing before they gave up and simply came out with a high-acid Hidden Valley Ranch dressing -- which promptly became a runaway best-seller. Why? Because consumers had never tasted real Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, and as a result had no way of knowing that what they were eating was inferior to the original. For those in the food business, the lesson was unforgettable: if something was new, it didn't have to be perfect.

Eww. As a native Southwesterner I would like to register my strong objections to this combination. :td:

Ranch dressing is disgusting. So is bleu cheese. Come to think of it, there is no "creamy" dressing I like.

Pizza bones go in ranch
Red Robin french fries go in ranch
Buffalo wings go in bleu cheese

Meat goes on a pizza
Vegetables go in a salad

All is right with the world :cool:

Pizza bones :confused: the crust after all the gooey stuff has been nibbled off? Interesting expression. Stuffed crust pizza has "marrow"?

Are sure that they did not just put Clorox in it? :)

It's not just the south: Ranch is slowly taking over the rest of the world, too. If you ask for ranch around here (Wisconsin) they'll bring you a huge clear ketchup style bottle of it, but any other dressings will come in a tiny paper cup. In fact, the local mexican restaurant serves it with their nachos in addition to salsa...weird.

I admit I love to dip onion rings into ranch, but prefer french for my salads...well, I actually prefer honey mustard, but good luck finding that at most restaurants :(

Ding! Ding! Ding! At least in Houston, you get ranch all the time with wings. I hate it. I have finally found a bar down here that not only does pretty good wings, but also gives you a boat of bleu cheese dressing with it. BW-3 down here offers ranch by default. You have to ask specifically for bleu cheese. That seems to be the norm.

So I'd say Houston is in the running for ranch weirdness HQ on the wings front.

And, yeah, ranch is so full of fat. When I succumb to the temptation of dipping say, a fry, in ranch dressing, I say, "Could I please have some fat to dip my deep fat fried fat in?" Yeah.

How is it a Ceasar salad if you use ranch dressing?

I tried dipping my buffalo wings in Clorox, but it just was not the same! :D

Steve

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!