This Old-School Salad Dressing Walked So Our Beloved Ranch Could Run
Ranch has been a favorite American salad dressing for decades. As of 2025, its rampant popularity finally made ranch dressing America's favorite condiment as well, knocking ketchup out of the top spot (via HOT 96.9 Boston). But ranch dressing as we know it is actually a direct descendant of a lesser-known dressing, named after the key ingredient it shares with ranch.
It's unknown who first created buttermilk dressing (or where, or when), but it started emerging among Texas cowboys in the late 1930s. Buttermilk was a common ingredient for cowboys given their profession, and after a few generations, there were plenty of tangy, creamy buttermilk dressing recipes out there.
One such cowboy named Steve Henson worked on his own buttermilk dressing recipe for years, testing it on strangers from California to Alaska. In 1954, he settled down with his wife in Southern California and opened a tourist ranch, but his salad dressing was the big draw. Soon after, Henson started selling pre-seasoned dressing packets to local businesses and customers under the name of his dude ranch: Hidden Valley.
How is buttermilk dressing different from ranch?
Given its origins and broad appeal today, it's fair to say that ranch is the most popular variety of buttermilk dressing that's ever existed, especially since you can skip the bottle and mix your own ranch with seasoning packets. But ranch's distinguishing flavors — such as dill, garlic, and parsley — don't necessarily need to be present in order for a condiment to be considered buttermilk dressing.
As you might expect from its informal emergence, there isn't one universal recipe for buttermilk dressing. Various recipes may include ingredients like mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, black pepper, garlic, chives, lemon juice, and more, but the only true requirement is buttermilk.
Buttermilk dressing is a good blank slate from which to develop further flavors, as shown by the creation of ranch. You can easily make your own buttermilk salad dressing at home, too, and if you don't have the key ingredient, some buttermilk substitutes (like sour cream mixed with water) can get you close enough.