Ranch dressing is a savory, creamy American salad dressing usually made from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, mustard, herbs (commonly chives, parsley and dill), and spices (commonly pepper, paprika and ground mustard seed) mixed into a sauce based on mayonnaise or another oil emulsion.^[1] Sour cream and yogurt are sometimes used in addition to, or as a substitute for, buttermilk and mayonnaise.

Ranch has been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992, when it overtook Italian dressing.^[2] It is also popular in the United States and Canada as a dip, and as a flavoring for potato chips and other foods. In 2017, 40% of Americans named ranch as their favorite dressing, according to a study by the Association for Dressings and Sauces.^[3]

Ranch dressing is produced by many manufacturers, including Hidden Valley, Ken's, Kraft, Litehouse, Marie's, Newman's Own, and Wish-Bone, as well as Heinz in the Middle East.

In the Southwestern United States, there is a variant from New Mexican cuisine called "green chile ranch" which adds green New Mexico chile pepper as an ingredient.^[10][11] Restaurant chains like Dion's produce and sell green chile ranch, as do others in the region.^[12][13][14]

Other variations include avocado, roasted red pepper, and buttermilk alternatives.^[15]

Ranch is also a flavor. Doritos, a type of tortilla chip, comes in a ranch flavor.^[16]

One side effect of the adoption of the name "ranch" for Henson's new salad dressing was that it resulted in a federal lawsuit over whether the phrase "ranch style" could be used to describe other competing salad dressing products. Since the early 1930s, there had already been an existing product called Ranch Style Beans, which is still sold by Conagra Brands today.

In 1975, Waples-Platter, the Texas-based manufacturer of Ranch Style Beans, sued Kraft Foods and General Foods for trademark infringement for their "ranch style" products, even though Waples-Platter had declined to enter the salad dressing market itself over concerns about rapid spoilage.

The case was tried before federal judge Eldon Brooks Mahon in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1976. Mahon ruled in favor of Waples-Platter in a lengthy opinion which described the various "ranch style" and "ranch" products then available in the 1970s in the United States, of which many had been created to compete against Hidden Valley Ranch. Mahon's opinion cites to evidence which indicates the lawyers had compelled Henson himself to sit for a deposition during the discovery process to testify about the history of Hidden Valley Ranch.^[17]

Mahon specifically noted that Hidden Valley Ranch and Waples-Platter had no dispute with each other, though he also noted that Hidden Valley Ranch was simultaneously suing General Foods in a separate federal case in California. The only issue before the Texas federal district court was that Waples-Platter was disputing the right of other American food manufacturers to compete against Hidden Valley Ranch by using the label "ranch style".^[17]

• List of dips