54% Think This Is The Best Brand Of Ranch Dressing

Ranch dressing is, by far, the most popular flavor of salad dressing in the U.S., according to a 2021 statistic by Statista. Invented around 1950 by Steve Henson, a construction worker from Nebraska who occasionally cooked for his crew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and per The New York Times, the signature ranch dressing quickly became a specialty of "Hidden Valley," the Santa Barbara guest ranch Henson opened in the mid-1950s with his wife, Gayle. 

While in Alaska, as a matter of necessity, Steve Henson had made his innovative buttermilk-based cool and creamy yet tangy and herbaceous dressing using only dried herbs and spices. However, even after he and his wife moved to Southern California's farm-ready climate, he didn't veer from that formula, and guests of the ranch, both literally and figuratively, ate the stuff up with a spoon. Guests pressured the Hensons to let them take home souvenir bottles for themselves and their friends. Word of mouth spread, paving the way to Henson's setting up a mail-order business for dry seasoning packets fans could use to make their own dressing at home — a business Clorox took over in the 1970s (per HuffPost). 

Ranch dressing became ubiquitous starting in the 1980s when it became available by the bottle. That's when other manufacturers began selling ranch-style dressing. But no brand even comes close to Hidden Valley, according to the respondents of a recent Mashed survey — 54% of whom voted it the best brand of bottled ranch. 

When more than half your survey respondents vote for one brand of ranch dressing as best, leaving the others to mop up the leftovers, it's worth taking note. Well, that's precisely what happened when Mashed polled American readers on their favorite bottled ranch dressing brand. The brand choices from which our 562 respondents were asked to choose were, in alphabetical order, 365 Organic, Annie's, Kraft, Hidden Valley, Newman's Own, and Wishbone. As it turned out, more than half — in fact, a whopping and very telling 54.09% — voted for the OG of ranch dressing, Hidden Valley.

And what about the remaining 45.91% of the votes? Well, Newman's Own probably deserves some sort of an honorable mention for having received the next highest percentage of votes at 18.86. On the other hand, that's still only roughly one-third of the love heaped on Hidden Valley's ranch dressing. However, it's about six times the favor our respondents showed for 365 Organic brand, which earned a mere 3.74% of the votes. Also circling the drain were Kraft's ranch dressing, which earned 13.17% of the votes of our respondents, Annie's (5.34%), and Wish-Bone (4.80%). 

To be honest, these results were hardly a surprise, as Hidden Valley made not one, but TWO appearances in our ranking of 17 store-bought ranch dressings, both in the top five, including the highest spot of all.