By Larry Molina II
Football season is here and as I partake in the tradition of gorging on delicious Buffalo Wings dipped in Ranch Dressing, I cannot help but let my mind wander. In this instance I began to wonder about all the delicious and interesting foods I will miss out on because they have yet to be 
concocted. New items always pop up such as the condiment Ranch Dressing. I know that Abe Lincoln never got to dip his wings in the amazing dressing, but did Kennedy? How old is Ranch Dressing, was there really a ranch? Today’s Interesting History will take a look at the story of one of the most common and beloved condiments; Ranch dressing.
As I began digging into this topic, there was a wealth of information of Ranch’s creation which is always a welcomed sign that I’m not the only curious cat or just crazy. The undisputed creators of the slayer of salad sauce are Steve and Gayle Henson from Santa Barbra, California. The Hensons owned a dude ranch in Santa Barbra 1954 not shockingly named Hidden Valley. Visitors from across the nation would come to the Hidden Valley Ranch on vacation. During their stay, visitors were exposed to the original recipe of buttermilk, mayonnaise, herbs and spices used as the ranch’s salad dressing. Of course it was a favorite of all newcomers and a must have souvenir for the visitors to share with their friends back home. The story goes that one visitor loved the dressing so much he requested a large batch to share at a dinner party he was hosting in Hawaii.
Realizing the potential success for the salad dressing Steve Henson decided to hire workers to make the dressing on a larger scale to send with folks. He had even come up with the idea to just sell the spices in easy to mail packets so that recipients could use their own buttermilk and mayonnaise to mix the sauce at home for convenience. After a good amount of success with this venture, the Hensons decided to sell their recipe to the Clorox Company in 1972 for $8 million. Clorox altered the mix to include a butter flavor so that consumers could use regular milk which is more common in households across America.
In 1983, Clorox made a monumental change to the Hidden Valley Ranch sauce by adding preservatives and creating a pre-made, ready to use bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. Popularity and uses grew enormously to make Ranch the number one most common salad dressing available.
I still cannot help but wonder what I may miss out on to dress up these wings. What could be better than Ranch?