Time for another set of recipes usually purchased in bottles at the store. This week, I am going to discuss salad dressings. A couple weeks ago, I did a column on condiments and enjoyed it immensely. Almost immediately after finishing that column, I said dressings from scratch are next! I love these columns because you control what you are putting together and you are eliminating some unnecessary chemicals.

Dressing has a long history dating all the way back to the Babylonians who used to mix oil and vinegar and spread it over salad greens. Egyptians were also known to mix oil and vinegar but also loved adding Asian spices to their dressing. In the Twentieth Century, Americans went a step further in salad development making it a fine art by using basic dressing ingredients (oil, vinegar or lemon juice, and spices) , to create an infinite variety of sauces and dressings to make salads the best ever. Mayonnaise was introduced into salads only about 200 years. And the most popular dressing, ranch, was created in the 1940’s although the version we all know from the store was only created in the ‘70’s.

Ranch dressing was created in 1949 by a plumber-turned-cowboy. While working as a contract plumber in Alaska, Steve Henson started cooking for his coworkers and perfecting his buttermilk dressing recipe. After he moved to California with his wife Gayle and bought a ranch, his famous buttermilk dressing became a staple at the dinner table of Hidden Valley Ranch and before long the Henson’s started selling it to guests and local supermarkets. Over two decades later in 1972, the couple sold their name and recipe to Clorox for $8 million. Not bad for a little buttermilk, mayo, and herbs. Unfortunately, the dressing packaged today is not the same as Henson’s original creation due to a short shelf life. Today, there are added oils and preservatives to make it last longer and ultimately the additions change the taste of it quite a bit.

Store bought dressings and sauces were largely unavailable until the turn of the century. Until then, home chefs made from scratch, and because of variations in ingredients, results were also extremely varied. Gradually, restaurants began packaging and selling their consistently good special dressings to delighted customers, and the salad dressings' industry was born. Many of the major brands of dressings available today were introduced as early as the 1920’s.

Fun Facts:

The average American consumes salad dressing 38 times a year. Fifteen of those 38 are served up with ranch dressing. Yes, you already knew ranch is popular, but did you know that it is by far the most consumed dressing in the United States? Italian dressing comes in second and is eaten only six out of 38 times.

Since its creation, Hidden Valley Ranch has developed over 70 different varieties of ranch dressing. The most popular flavor remains Original Ranch, followed by Avocado Ranch, Cucumber Ranch, and Bacon Ranch. Crazier flavors over the years include Pizza and Taco Flavored Ranch.

The first store-bought salad dressings were sold in wooden jars.

The original Caesar salad recipe did not contain pieces of anchovy like most of them today. The slight anchovy flavor comes from Worcestershire sauce. Ceasar Cardini, the original creator of the salad, was opposed to using anchovies in his salad.

The Caesar salad was once voted by the International Society of Epicures in Paris as the “greatest recipe to originate from the Americas in fifty years.”

Several of the recipes below can be made even further from scratch by using the condiments from the column two weeks ago for some of the ingredients, such as the mayo or spicy brown mustard. These recipes are not going to last long due to no preservatives so they only make small batches. If you are feeding a lot of people, feel free to increase the ingredients to make a double or even triple batch. I will also say if your family loves ranch dressing as much as my sister’s family does, you will easily go through a triple batch of this each week! They put it on everything… So this week, make your grocery list and meet me in the kitchen for dressings made easy!