Ranch dip
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Ranch
- 250 g sour cream rounded
- 120 g mayonnaise rounded
- 80 ml buttermilk, the ingredient that makes it ranch rather than herb dip rounded
- 12 g chives, finely snipped rounded
- 12 g flat parsley rounded
- 8 g fresh dill rounded
- 6 g onion granules rounded
- 6 g garlic granules, granules rather than fresh, because this sits for days rounded
- 5 g coarse black pepper rounded
- 5 g fine salt rounded
- 10 ml white wine vinegar rounded
Method
Method
- Chop the herbs finely and by hand. A processor bruises them and turns the dip grey-green.
- Whisk everything together and taste for salt at the end.
- Rest at least two hours, and overnight is better. Fresh from the bowl it tastes like seasoned sour cream, because the dried alliums have not rehydrated and the herbs have not bled.
Notes
- Buttermilk is the defining ingredient. Ranch was invented at a California dude ranch in the 1950s and the buttermilk is what made it distinctive. Without it you have a herb dip.
- Granules, not fresh garlic. Fresh garlic in a dairy dip turns harsh and slightly bitter within a day. Granules stay even.
- Dip or dressing is only a question of buttermilk. As written it is a dip. Another 80 ml and it pours.
- It keeps 5 days. The herbs dull after three, so if you are making it well ahead, hold half the herbs back and stir them in on the day.
Ingredient substitutions
- Buttermilk is Buttermilch in Germany and widely available. In a pinch, 80 ml of milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice left to stand 10 minutes is a reasonable stand-in, though thinner.
- Sour cream can be Schmand or crème fraîche, both of which are richer and less sharp; add a little more vinegar to compensate.
- For a lighter, higher-protein version, swap the sour cream for Greek yogurt. It is sharper and thinner and closer to the yogurt dressing formula.