The Zesty Way To Take Homemade Ranch Up A Notch

When it comes to salad dressing flavors, Caesar may be emperor, but ranch is undoubtedly king. According to Statista, it's nearly three times as popular as its regally-named competitor and reigns supreme as the nation's favorite. While Hidden Valley and other bottled ranch dressings have a place in millions of refrigerators across the land, some prefer to make their own homemade ranch dressing — or semi-homemade, perhaps, as many recipes typically involve powdered ranch dressing mix. While making such a dressing may be as simple as stirring the mix into some mayo, one TikTok creator kicks things up a bit with their own extra-zesty spin.

In the video, the TikTok chef starts off making ranch dressing from a mix, and yes, of course, they add some mayonnaise — lime-flavored mayonnaise, as it happens. They then add their secret (only totally not secret, as it's right there in the video) ingredient: buttermilk. On the first pass, they made the dressing using just a single packet of powdered ranch mix, but on tasting the dressing, found that it had yet to reach peak zest. An additional packet soon took care of the problem, though, with the result that the dressing (which appeared thick enough to be a dip, as well) was pronounced to be "exactly like the ranch you get from a restaurant." This stands to reason because restaurants, too, tend to use real buttermilk in their ranch dressings.

The dressing in the TikTok video is extra zesty (did we just use that word again? Everyone, dunk your baby carrots in ranch!) because it actually gets a triple dose of buttermilk. Triple? How so? Well, powdered buttermilk is one of the main ingredients in ranch dressing mix, so two packets of the stuff plus the buttermilk used as a thinner. Buttermilk, whether powdered or liquid, gets its tang from a component called lactic acid. This is a byproduct of the fermenting process that's used to make cultured buttermilk since these days we all get the stuff from the store instead of pouring it out of our old-timey butter churns. Of course, the TikTok dressing doesn't owe its tang to lactic acid alone, since the lime-flavored mayo means that citric acid, too, comes into play for a perfect pairing of mild acidity.

@fegneb

Have you tried this yet? You must use this mayo is what the comments have said. I also totally forgot to mention i added a little extra buttermilk bc these ingredients were expensive and i was panicked that it was gonna just taste like mayo 😂 #restaurantranch #ranchrecipe #limemayo

♬ A Day in My Life – Soft boy

If you prefer an even tangier ranch, though, you could also add a little vinegar, as some recipes call for. Another possibility is lemon juice, which is used in our own homemade ranch dressing recipe (no seasoning packets required since you're mixing your own spice blend), or you could lean into the lime element introduced by the lime-flavored mayonnaise by adding a squeeze of that citrus, as well.