- 2 days ago
Today on Epicurious, we’ve asked professional chefs Shilpa Uskokovic, Jacob Hadjigeorgis, and Charlie Marshall to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent ranch dressing brands found on supermarket shelves. Which ranch packs the most bang for your buck, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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00:00We've gathered three professional chefs to blind taste test every bottle of ranch
00:04we could get our hands on to see which ones meet their standards.
00:13Hidden Valley Ranch. The texture of this is quite lovely actually. All the ingredients are
00:21incorporated. It has a nice creamy texture to it. The way it jiggles could be from stabilizers.
00:27I don't think we're just seeing an emulsification here. For a great ranch dressing, I would like it to be
00:34creamy.
00:35A certain silkiness to the dressing, but not be gloppy, not just sit there. Because it is so
00:41thick and rich, I am looking for acidity and black pepper kick. An umami element from onion powder and
00:49garlic powder. The buttermilk gives it that tang that I think is extremely necessary and recognizable.
00:56Well, there are three main herbs that you're going to see in almost every single ranch dressing, which
01:01is going to be chives, dill, and parsley. Herbs add a secondary note that prevents it from being
01:07overwhelming. That is a recognizable profile, obviously. It's got that tang, but it's not the
01:15tang I'm expecting from buttermilk. It doesn't have the kind of lactic creaminess. There is a sort of
01:21pungency. It's given way to a gentle and mellow acidity, which is actually quite lovely.
01:28It coats the ingredients well. If you didn't tell me anything, I would actually think this is a very
01:34mild blue cheese dressing. It has good herbaceous front to it. Onion and garlic come through. There's
01:40definitely a sheen, which tells me that the first ingredient may be oil. This reminds me of Hidden
01:48Valley. Is it Hidden Valley? Hidden Valley is the classic. Hidden Valley pretty much started it all.
01:56It was originally started by a guy named Steve Henson, who was a plumber. And then he sort of retired
02:03early. And then he moved to California and bought a ranch and he called it the Hidden Valley. The
02:09dressing, something that he served to his guests. It was essentially a dry mix that he would reconstitute.
02:13It was so popular, they started selling packets by mail order. And the demand was so much that he
02:20ended up making this his main business. I would imagine that this is not the original Hidden Valley
02:27recipe. Hidden Valley isn't Hidden Valley anymore. Like a lot of the companies out there,
02:31they're owned by Clorox. If you want to figure out how to put something that's not shelf-stable
02:35in a shelf-stable bottle, Clorox is probably the perfect company to figure it out. This is kind
02:39of a benchmark of what is expected for ranch dressing.
02:47Craft Classic Ranch. Its color is significantly different. It has a yellow tint to it. It looks like
02:53jello. That's disconcerting. It's more of a dip consistency, a little more mayonnaise-y than the other one.
03:02There's buttermilk, maybe a dry dairy component in there. It's very acid forward. That hits towards
03:10the back of your tongue. But again, I'm not getting the herb finish here. I can see a lot of
03:15flecks
03:16of herbs, but it seems like more a visual reminder that there are herbs rather than a flavor. For a
03:22bottled ranch dressing, you'll typically find dried herbs just because it's shelf-stable. Fresh herbs have a
03:29lot of moisture, and moisture equals spoilage. So it's very likely that this dressing has maybe
03:35a starch component to it to kind of give it more body. And in a dressing like this, which feels
03:40really thick, there's a lot of fat and probably xanthan gum or any other thickener or emulsifier.
03:47Is this craft? Craft! Oh, craft. It says,
03:51now more rich. One of my notes was it was very acidic. The second ingredient is vinegar. It has
03:57potassium sorbate. Potassium sorbate is a salt that's made from sorbic acid. That's part of why
04:03it tastes so acidic. This particular dressing uses both egg yolks and modified food starch. Those are
04:10both ingredients that we'll use to stabilize dressing. Too thick for me. This does taste like a liquid form
04:17of the coating on Cool Ranch Doritos. Newman's Own Ranch. It has a completely different viscosity to it.
04:30It's definitely much thinner. It sloshes a little bit more, and I feel this could function well as
04:36both a dressing and as a dip. Or throwing it on pizza. I love pizza with ranch. Not a lot
04:44going on there.
04:44The onion and garlic don't really come through. It's very bitter, which I attribute to like a rancid
04:50oil. When I'm thinking about ranch, I'm thinking about an herbaceous kick coming in against an umami
04:57onion bottom and meeting in the cream. It's missing. Extremely pronounced vinegar profile. It feels like
05:04it's coming from like a chemical sort of acid. We see on some ingredient labels ascorbic acid or like
05:10phosphoric acid. Sometimes in bottle dressings to meet the mandated levels of acidity and pH levels,
05:18manufacturers have to include multiple acids. But the main component in ranch to mellow out the acidity
05:25will be fat. It finishes clean on the palate, which might tell me that it doesn't have as much fat.
05:32For a ranch, this is kind of flat. Less than 2% of buttermilk. More of a dairy profile. There's
05:40a lot of
05:40acid in this. There's distilled vinegar. There's citric acid, which is so strong a chemical that when
05:46I used to work in restaurants, we would use it to clean like stoves. Trader Joe's buttermilk ranch.
05:54I like the color of it. Probably the brightest green that I've seen thus far. It's thin enough to
05:59be a dressing. It's definitely thinner. To me, this doesn't have the stabilizers. Maybe this is a
06:05refrigerated brand. Ooh. Really nice herbaceousness. I can really taste the herbs in this. Most
06:12garlicky. A nice umami background with the onion. There's also like a secondary note of acidity,
06:18but with some kind of floral interplay, almost like it's lemon and not just straight vinegar or
06:23another chemical. There is some of that lactic sort of acidity that you would get from dairy like
06:28buttermilk. As far as flavor, this is perfect. This is the runniest. This might be more natural. Most
06:34dressings are incompatible by nature. They're usually a suspension of something that is a liquid,
06:42like let's say water or milk or buttermilk, with a fat, like typically oil in a dressing. The trick
06:49lies in mixing them together in a way that they like each other and remain friends forever. Over time,
06:57emulsifications do break unless they're held together with some stabilizer. The emulsifier comes in
07:04and provides the right tools for these two seemingly incompatible elements to live together.
07:11I think this is Trader Joe's. Feels too good to be Trader Joe's.
07:15Trader Joe's Ranch. This is the first of the ones that we've tasted that is a refrigerated dressing.
07:21It's retained so much of that fresh tang. And that's coming from the sour cream. There's sour cream.
07:26There's buttermilk. Shallots. Chive. And they use mustard flour, so that's one of their natural emulsifiers.
07:32It's pretty good. Hellmann's Classics Ranch. This one is shiny and barely moves. It almost looks like
07:44plastic to me. We're back in shelf-stable ranch world. Definitely more of a dip consistency to me. There's not
07:50a lot of
07:50herbage, to be honest, nor any flecks of black pepper that are super visible. It has a milkiness to it.
07:57Maybe a higher fat content. It feels almost waxy and it's stuck to my upper palate. Not getting a
08:03whole lot of umami from the onion and garlic doesn't have that herbaceous front to it. I don't like it.
08:09Oh my god. Oh, hellmann's! Wait, what? That's a huge bottle. Who makes that much ranch?
08:18It's giving drunk on my couch drinking ranch on the bottle. I am amazed that the first ingredient is
08:24water. In order to not have it be watery, they have to use thickeners. Here they're using xanthan gum
08:30and the propylene glycol alginate, made from algae, so it's natural. There's modified cornstarch in this,
08:35which thickens in a different way to xanthan gum. In a way, it's almost pudding-like.
08:40Modified cornstarch is a big component of pudding mix. It's missing a lot of the depth,
08:44but it's very pleasant. It looks like ranch-flavored vodka.
08:52Big chunks of herbs in here, which I like to see. This ranch is definitely the chunkiest. This one is
08:57deeply yellow, almost green. It's more of a cheesiness. Definitely has a buttery flavor to it. It's
09:05very savory. And there may be a higher sugar content. It's really lacking some of that refreshing
09:11quality that I'm looking for in a ranch dressing. Something weird about this one though. Oh, Stonewall
09:17Kitchen. I think that the weird flavor is coming from the tocopherols. It's a mix of vitamin E's.
09:24It's a natural antioxidant. It's a preservative and they don't last as long as the highly used
09:30commercial ones. It's a way not to have a big long chemical name on the back. You can replace it
09:34with
09:34something that sounds like a vitamin. The third ingredient is salted egg, which really goes to
09:39explain the deeper color. I wouldn't even call it ranch. It's not a true representation of what a
09:45ranch dressing should be. This strays the farthest for me. Good and Gather organic ranch. This is
09:53very white. Looks like they forgot the herbs completely. Looks very frothy, almost like a meringue. It
10:00really does look just like yogurt. This one is very sweet. Someone took everything fun out of ranch,
10:08except for the tang. The oil tastes like it might have some age to it. It may have slightly oxidized.
10:14The consistency is actually pretty good. It's well emulsified. The vinegar is just lingering.
10:21Good and Gather. This is a Target brand. Target? You forgot all the herbs. There's even pictures
10:28of herbs on the front. You've got pictures of dill. Where is it? Not a single one of it made
10:32it into
10:32this dressing. Sugar is the fourth ingredient on this label. The intention is for that to help balance
10:38it out, but it just comes through as too sharp and too sweet at the same time. That's a no
10:43for me.
10:45Great Value Ranch. Well, this one has a really nice jiggle to it. A little bit more speckle in this
10:53ranch.
10:54Very tiny, almost like herb dust. I am pleasantly really surprised by this one. This has a very
11:02traditional ranch milkiness. It's a little slippery. When they've got a little more oil in them, they can
11:08taste slippery on the tongue. It washes your tongue in this savory note. I can really taste the lactic
11:16acidity of buttermilk, for instance, or sour cream, maybe. It's got nice herb flavors. Good onion and
11:22garlic. I love this one. This is a good everyday ranch, I think. Great Value. You know, I've noticed
11:28there's a trend in our taste tests where the Great Value brand really does come through. For the price
11:33compared to some of the other ranch that we saw, you know, you have ingredients that might be a little
11:38more costly. Like, let's say, egg. Oh! Sugar is the third ingredient, but it feels way more balanced
11:46than in the Good and Gather one. So because this has sodium benzoate in it, you will never see like
11:52lemon juice in this because it can react with ascorbic acid in a bottle in heat or with sunlight
11:57and create benzene, which is, you know, commonly found in gasoline. Ken's Ranch.
12:05There seem to be like fine granules or something in here, besides herbs. So this one has a pretty
12:12steady texture. Pretty good flavor. This is kind of nice. There's a pleasing acidity. It feels like
12:19it's really awakening the palate. It has a really nice zing tang to it. You have that kind of milky
12:25profile. It coats my mouth really nicely. I really like the consistency of this one. I can also see what
12:30I think are probably flecks of garlic. However, it doesn't come through very strong. For commercial
12:36ranch dressing, this is high up there for me. Is it Ken's? Ken's. Ken's. Yeah, this is the one.
12:42It is Ken's. This dressing, in my opinion, checks all the boxes. You have actual buttermilk in this one.
12:49As far as a shelf-stable dressing, this is, yeah, definitely one of my favorites.
12:58This one is way too shiny for me. Just a lot of oil in there. Jiggles like jello. I see
13:05a lot of
13:06herbage and I also see these yellow granules. The oil to me tastes extremely oxidized. Very acidic.
13:15Vinegar condens high. I think it's being balanced out with a lot of sugar. I'm not getting any herb or
13:20onion. Not a really good buttermilk flavor. The consistency is good. They got that right.
13:25Olive Garden Italian Kitchen. I thought they only had their Italian dressing. Oh, Parmesan.
13:32I didn't taste the Parmesan at all. I feel like they really put the Parmesan in there
13:37just to qualify it as vaguely Italian. That does give it a little bit more body, probably. It could
13:43really have worked well, but I think it would need a lot more and be a good quality, strong parm.
13:48If this
13:48is what your dressing tastes like, how do you expect people to come to the restaurant?
13:53Whole Foods 365 Organic Classic Ranch. This looks not as thick, maybe a little fresher.
14:00Kind of a perfect consistency for me. This is what I want. I want to be able to dress my
14:03salad,
14:03I want to coat something without feeling like I'm sticking my celery in mayonnaise.
14:08It's quite refreshing. There is a nice amount of acidity. It's quite balanced.
14:13Not maybe quite as much tang, but a really nice creaminess.
14:16And then it finishes really nicely with the herbs.
14:19I think there's dried oregano in this one. It almost takes me to pizza world.
14:24This is definitely on the higher end.
14:26Whole Foods?
14:29365 Whole Foods.
14:31So this is refrigerated.
14:32So when you go from shelf stable to refrigerated, they go away from the oily flavor and more to the
14:38creamy. It's a lot fresher. You can tell right away.
14:41Quite a lovely dressing and with a sort of Goldilocks texture that can be both a dip and a dressing.
14:50Chosen Foods. Classic Ranch.
14:52Well, this one is pretty thin.
14:56Certainly more in the dressing rather than dip category.
14:59It almost looks like a light Caesar dressing.
15:03Heavy on the vinegar.
15:04It's got a tang to it. I wouldn't say it's a milky tang.
15:06You've got to love sweetness to try to balance it out.
15:09The predominant flavor in this dressing is dill. And I kind of like that.
15:12Maybe a lower fat.
15:13Could be avocado oil.
15:16Chosen Foods. Classic Ranch.
15:18They make avocado oil based products.
15:22Oh, 100% avocado oil.
15:23The second ingredient is pear juice. That's used as a sweetener.
15:27There's a pectin in there that kind of helps thicken up.
15:30But it really strays from what ranch should taste like.
15:36Marie's Creamy Ranch.
15:39Oh, that is thick and clingy.
15:42Looks a little clumpy.
15:44What are these clots?
15:47Oh my goodness.
15:48Maybe the least smooth.
15:50And I think it's dehydrated onion pieces that have reconstituted in the dressing
15:55to now take on this sort of fleshy quality.
15:58The vinegar is balanced.
16:00So I'm going to get a lot of garlic in here.
16:02The predominant flavor is aluminium and black pepper rather than herbs.
16:06Not as rich and not as complex.
16:09This is Marie's.
16:11Maria's.
16:12Oh, okay.
16:14It's not quite Maria's, but it's Marie's.
16:17Keep refrigerated.
16:18Buttermilk is number two.
16:19You have sour cream in there and egg yolks back to back.
16:22Oh, dried green onion.
16:24I think that's what it is.
16:26I think the oil kind of comes through a little bit more than I'd like.
16:29But overall, this is more unique and a pretty good contender.
16:35Market Pantry Ranch.
16:37This one is a weird consistency.
16:40Way more of a sheen.
16:41It's very thin.
16:42It clings, but in a very thin layer.
16:45Do this all night long.
16:46It's like my Japanese rock garden.
16:50Not unpleasant, actually.
16:52Distinct tang.
16:53Distinct onion and garlic.
16:54No herb flavor.
16:55It's a little thin for me and it's a little sweet.
16:58I am not thrilled with this dressing.
17:00Yeah.
17:01Market Pantry's Target.
17:02Contains less than 1% of natural flavors.
17:05They're still artificial flavors, but derived from real ingredients.
17:08It could definitely be those modified food searches that are causing this and the lack of other thickeners.
17:13You get what you pay for.
17:16Great Value, Buttermilk Ranch.
17:20There's some nice coating action there.
17:22Whoa.
17:23Do you see that?
17:24It is so thick.
17:25It like builds up on the back of this spoon.
17:29Very acidic, like vinegar.
17:31I think it's lacking on the dairy.
17:33I'm not getting any of the herbs.
17:35And also not really any umami from onion and garlic.
17:40The oil is kind of lingering on the palate.
17:42Sort of rough around the edges.
17:45Great Value.
17:46Buttermilk Ranch.
17:47What else should it be?
17:49So they literally have on the shelf next to each other a ranch,
17:52which is supposed to be a buttermilk ranch.
17:54And then right next to it, they put a buttermilk ranch.
17:55Weird that they would call it buttermilk ranch,
17:57because when you look at the ingredient label,
17:59contains 2% or less of buttermilk.
18:03Well, keep it simple, Walmart.
18:04The other one was better.
18:07Ken's Buttermilk Ranch.
18:10So this is a pretty stiff looking consistency on this one.
18:13My goodness.
18:14You can almost turn this one upside down.
18:18Surprisingly good flavor.
18:19It feels like you made ranch dressing from the packet,
18:23but then you use only half the liquid.
18:25It has a pretty light flavor.
18:26The tang is not super forward.
18:28The spices don't come through.
18:29Quite a visible amount of herbs,
18:31but it didn't really translate into flavor.
18:33This is a fine ranch.
18:34It's fine.
18:35Ken's peppercorn.
18:37Oh, it's not Ken's.
18:38It's got way too much stuff in it.
18:39Oh my God.
18:40This is Ken's Buttermilk Ranch.
18:43I don't get more buttermilk.
18:44I liked the original version better.
18:47Ken's Classic Ranch definitely came in as the winner versus this one.
18:52Brianna's Homestyle Classic Buttermilk Ranch.
18:55It has an unnatural color.
18:58It's extremely shiny.
19:00This one's got nice herbs.
19:02It's also very thin.
19:04And yeah, that's nasty.
19:06This one is not very good.
19:07This is like the most oil content.
19:11I honestly would not call it a ranch.
19:13It feels highly processed to me.
19:15There's a very strong off flavor.
19:17It has this rancid overtone.
19:18It punches you in the throat.
19:20Tocopherols.
19:21So that's what's in there.
19:23It's vitamin E's.
19:24It's a natural preservative.
19:26Visually promising, but taste-wise it's really harsh.
19:32Brianna's Homestyle Classic Buttermilk Ranch dressing.
19:35Okay, the trend that I am reporting about is that any ranch dressing labeled Buttermilk Ranch dressing isn't worth your
19:42time.
19:42Yeah, it's really not good.
19:44This is presented and packaged to be a more premium product, but I think really, really falls short in my
19:51opinion.
19:54Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch.
19:57This looks like mostly sour cream.
20:00I'm docking some points here.
20:01Very thick.
20:04I don't like the emulsification on this one.
20:06Sort of sits on your tongue a bit heavy and it feels a bit oily.
20:09You get the vinegar and then you get the garlic.
20:11You're not really getting any other sort of roundness in the flavors.
20:15Almost no herbaceousness.
20:17There is also, again, a bitterness in this that is quite unexpected.
20:21Middle of the road, I would say.
20:22This is very meh.
20:24You guys, I've had it.
20:26Any ranch that says Buttermilk Ranch, abandon.
20:29Runaway.
20:30I would go with the classic.
20:34Ken's Light Ranch.
20:37This ranch has a fresh look to it.
20:39A little more body to it.
20:40Almost a bounce.
20:42This looks suspiciously like pudding.
20:45Kind of sharp.
20:47Literally just rinses right off your tongue.
20:49It isn't super fatty.
20:50It needs more of that fat to really soften the vinegar.
20:54You can make a ranch lighter by removing a lot of the oil and replacing it with water and stabilizers.
21:02It feels like buttermilk, mayonnaise, onion.
21:05That's it.
21:06Is it Ken's low fat?
21:07Low fat Kraft.
21:10Light Ranch by Ken.
21:1250% less fat.
21:1442% fewer calories.
21:16So when you cut the fat back, you have to add body in some other form.
21:21They've used potato flour, xanthan gum, carrageenan, mustard flour, modified cornstarch, maltodextrin.
21:28Maltodextrin is just a polysaccharide.
21:30It's a really long sugar and it's great for bulking recipes or people.
21:35Like if you're a bodybuilder and you want to take weight gainer, it's literally like 80% maltodextrin.
21:41It has really great qualities of offering a little bit of sweetness and a little bit of volume without adding
21:49flavor.
21:51Primal Kitchen dairy-free ranch with avocado oil.
21:55This is the darkest that we've had today.
21:58So many herbs.
21:59It has zero cling.
22:02This is like a vinaigrette.
22:04What is this?
22:06Oh, very, very tart.
22:08It's really acidic.
22:09And it has a kind of slickness on your tongue.
22:12Like a greasy finish.
22:14A lot of zing, a lot of herbs, a little umami, but in all the wrong places.
22:19I hate this dressing.
22:21It doesn't resemble ranch dressing.
22:23Let's see how much fat you save by choking this down.
22:27Primal Kitchen.
22:28And there we go.
22:29Pretty high on the list is citric acid.
22:31Often gives you that sharper acidity.
22:34Most interestingly, it says no dairy.
22:36It shouldn't be called ranch if it doesn't have any dairy.
22:38It is an herb dressing.
22:40And that's that.
22:43Market Pantry, Light Ranch.
22:46This has got body for days.
22:50Low fat, for sure.
22:52This is not bad.
22:53A nice balance of like acid, salt.
22:56But it just finishes sweet.
22:58No mommy notes really to speak of.
23:01The flavor is flat for me.
23:02There is a faint amount of dill, but very, very mild.
23:06This would be fine on like chicken wings, but by itself just on vegetables.
23:09This would not be a go-to for me.
23:11This would not be a go-to for me.
23:12Market Pantry, Light Ranch.
23:14Mounted Dextrin is number four, which is really high up.
23:19I am not a fan of this dressing.
23:22Hidden Valley, Ranch Light.
23:25Do you see how shiny that is?
23:27It's really emulsified.
23:28Certainly low fat.
23:30It seems like it's seasoned quite well.
23:33Oh my God.
23:34It tastes like coconut and cough syrup.
23:37It doesn't taste like it has a high fat content.
23:41It's very thin, very watery.
23:43Less fat generally equates to less flavor because fat is a flavor carrier.
23:47There's less cling on the palate in the low fat dressing.
23:51So you don't taste the dressing as long.
23:53I'm not super forward on the herbaceous notes.
23:55There's very little seasoning here.
23:57It doesn't remind me of ranch.
23:59This to me tastes like a low fat mayonnaise.
24:02Hidden Valley, Light Ranch.
24:04This one says 60% less fat.
24:06So they become increasingly lower fat.
24:08That's interesting.
24:09So they're replacing the fat and the oils with buttermilk.
24:13Obviously buttermilk is more expensive than water.
24:15I would eat a tablespoon less of the regular than choose a light version of it.
24:20I'd probably go with this out of all the light ranches.
24:23But I wouldn't go with light ranch.
24:25Now let's see which bottles of ranch our chefs like the most and the least.
24:29By far my favorite dressing today was the Whole Foods ranch.
24:34It's a refrigerated ranch.
24:35It was really fresh, bright.
24:37Really nice umami, a great creaminess, a perfect consistency.
24:40My favorite ranch dressing today was undoubtedly the Trader Joe's.
24:43It was well balanced.
24:45It had a lot of flavor from the herbs.
24:47It was on par or better than a homemade version.
24:50I thought the best balance of flavors in the Shelf Stable dressings was the Ken's original.
24:56It had a very nice balance of umami, creaminess and tang.
25:00My least favorite was Stonewall's.
25:04It had a weird like chicken stock sort of quality to it.
25:07Both dressings that we tasted today that had tocopherols in them, the flavor of those,
25:13I believe was coming through.
25:14The Briana's, I had to spit it out.
25:17I wouldn't reach for any of the ones that have a light or a buttermilk ranch.
25:22It's better to stick with the classics.
25:24Thank you to Steve Henson, former plumber, for gifting us ranch dressing.
25:29Yeah, it's just, it's a great condiment to kind of brighten food up.
25:31I'll eat ranch again.
25:33My ranch.
25:34My ranch.
25:35My ranch.
25:35My ranch.
25:35My ranch.
25:39My ranch.
25:44All right.
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