Classic Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Ranch dressing is America's condiment. Not ketchup, not mustard. Ranch. We consume more of it than any other dressing by a margin that would embarrass the competition. And yet most Americans have never tasted real ranch, the kind Steve Henson served at his dude ranch in California back in 1954, made fresh with buttermilk and herbs you could actually identify.

The packet mixes and bottled versions have their place, I suppose, if that place is a gas station or a college dormitory. But once you've made ranch from scratch, the comparison becomes almost cruel. Fresh dill and chives sing where dried herbs mumble. Real garlic provides depth instead of powder's one-note sharpness. The buttermilk delivers honest tang, not the chemical approximation cooked up in a laboratory.

This dressing takes ten minutes to make. It keeps for a week in your refrigerator, improving each day as the flavors marry and deepen. Use it on salads, certainly, but don't stop there. Drizzle it over grilled chicken. Serve it with crudités. Thin it slightly for a Buffalo wing dip. Dollop it onto baked potatoes. The possibilities exhaust themselves before your appetite does.