I am looking to make my own ranch dressing. Does anyone have a suggestions?
Hidden Valley Ranch sell packets that will make one gallon of dressing. 1/2 gallon mayo, 1/2 gallon buttermilk, 1 packet and mix. Easy and crazy delicious.
If you’re wanting to make it totally from scratch (to avoid the MSG) with your own spices, that same mayo/buttermilk base is the way to go. Then experiment with the flavorings listed on this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranch_dressing
I’m going to try making a “light” ranch with Greek yogurt in place of mayo now that that wiki page has planted the idea in my mind!
Sysco has their “House Recipe” brand that does not have MSG in it and is just as good as name brand IMO, yet the price is substantially lower
Ditto GOT ROCKS, I just switched this week to the sysco brand and can not tell the difference, but making your own ranch is by far a great idea because people LOVE fresh ranch, well at least in the Midwest!
Here’s ours. We started this about a year ago and salad sales have double since. Plus is saves us around $10 a case after you factor in the extra labor to make it.
Mayo 2 gallons
Sour cream 10 lbs
Buttermilk 1 gallon
Hidden Valley mix 2 cups.
We purchase the 20lb box of Hidden Valley
I use foothill farms ranch & my customers LOVE it too. In fact I have customers that buy just the ranch dressing for 2.50 a pint.
So then you portion into souffle cups for delivery and deal with that cost, mess and spoilage too? I have a hard time getting excited about making a condiment from scratch. Not enough savings to get excited about and just one more thing on the prep list.
Idaho, why would you sell it for $2.50 a pint when store-bought costs the consumer over $4.00 even at Target and yours is fresh!!? (just checked online price for original hidden valley at Target) Designer Ranch Dressing goes for $6.00 (http://almostedenorganics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=72)
You should be able to charge $5-7 for a pint!
So then you portion into souffle cups for delivery and deal with that cost, mess and spoilage too? I have a hard time getting excited about making a condiment from scratch. Not enough savings to get excited about and just one more thing on the prep list.
Yes,
Better product, happier customers, more hours and $ to the employees, and close to $1000 a month back to the business.
For us it makes a big difference because we have a salad bar, we sell it for 5.99 a pint
Doesn’t the hidden valley mix still have MSG? So you are not eliminating that ingredient, but you are making a better, homemade product in that case, correct?
$1000 per month additional bottom line just on using homemade ranch dressing? Wow. Let’s say for argument that incremental sales contribute 25% of sales to the bottom line. If that were the case I would need to have switching dressings add about 50K annually to my salad sales. Since my salad sales are currently less than 20K that would be an improbable scenario for me.
There is simply no way that the cost savings on dressing alone would produce meaningful savings for us. Using our salad sales and an assumption for how many salads that is and assuming that we would use 4oz of dressing per salad, our total salad dressing needs (remember we have five kinds) comes to less than 100 gallons per year. Even if we used nothing but ranch, at $10 per gallon savings the total would be $1000 for the year not $1000 per month! That means that at $10 per gallon savings and assuming ranch might be 1/3 of dressings sold, I would need about 30-40 stores before my savings would approach $1000 per month on a cost basis.
As best as I can figure it, saving $10 per gallon on ranch would save me about $200 per year… which is why we stopped doing it 14 years ago after our first year in busines.
We used to buy our ranch at Sam’s Club - their in house brand. We now make the HVR stuff using fresh buttermilk and mayo and the packet of stuff. The cost difference is it actually costs more for the HVR and add in the labor on top of that.
Flip side - it does taste dramatically different and better. We do seem to be selling more of it now too. I was unaware that it had MSG in it?
What would you recommend would be the best way to make it? I have a 5 gallon tub. How much of each ingredient do you use? For example, you listed 10 lbs of sour cream. How much sour cream do you think I should use if I mix it in a 5 gallon tub? Thanks
Yes, 4th ingredient: https://www.hiddenvalley.com/assets/nutri-facts/HVR%20Dressing%20Mixes/7110000443_dHV_SD_OR_1oz_R1.jpg It’s that umami flavor that makes it great!
Do you guys sell bread sticks? Where you take a ball of dough, cut it into strips and bake? We sell most of our Ranch as a dipping sauce for those, make it in 8-gallon batches and portion into 4 oz. souffle cups.
I believe Ranch dressing is a staple food in the midwest,
The bulk of our ranch goes out the door with the wings. We sell around 6000 orders a month. We also move 2000 salads and 2000 orders of breadstix and cheesebreads. All want ranch and many want extra. Many people order it to dip their pizza. We also offer it as a base sauce and as a drizzle on top of the pizza. Our area has gone bonkers for ranch lately.
And in my house too!!!
Yep, 2 H.V. packets and then gallon each heavy duty mayo and cultured buttermilk. We too have a salad bar and spend many nights wiping empty ranch bowls from people dipping their slices. Our chicken bacon ranch is our #1 specialty pie also
We also go the “house made” route and people love it. It’s always a bonus to claim that an item is made in house, even something as simple as ranch…
I want to try this! But where are you guys getting the buttermilk from? And how much is it? I see it in the grocery store but it’s not sold in gallons and the price wouldn’t be worth it do most vendors carry this?