this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
396 points (93.4% liked)
Not The Onion
21754 readers
784 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Please also avoid duplicates.
Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, ableist, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You can make it yourself for a fraction of even the price of the packets.
Just made a small batch for wings. It's much better than anything store bought.
Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing Clone
I like to add a touch of dried dill or dill seed also. Edit: also lemon juice or a touch of rice vinegar.
If you don't have any of these ingredients, it will cost you $24 to buy them all. And, you'll only get 4 batches, before you need to buy more mayo, and 16 batches out of the buttermilk, but you'd better use it up before it goes bad in two weeks. So, you'd need to make and use about one batch per day.
Unless you commit to making it ongoing, and use it regularly, this is not an economical way to get Ranch.
Tell me you don't cook without saying you don't cook... Sheesh.
Any reasonably well-stocked kitchen will have some, if not most, of these.
I prefer using plain yogurt as it's a staple in my house, but powdered buttermilk that lasts years, and just milk and a bit of lemon juice are all well-known substitutes. Nothing special needed.
The point of sharing a recipe is to make a fraction of a full batch, not make a liter on permanent standby. I usually make 8 oz at a time when I make wings. Takes 5 minutes. If I were to use packets, I have to make a full batch as packets aren't a homogeneous powder easily divided.
Also, packets and bottled shelf stable ranch contain preservatives that mess up gut flora. So you may have medical costs later as the result of being obtuse about cooking for yourself now.
I have never once "committed" to making ranch other than on-demand, and I don't buy anything special that I only use for making ranch.
MSG IS NEVER OPTIONAL!!!
I added that so people that don't have any at home don't stress.
Makes Shit Good
One potential problem: I don’t know how it is in the rest of Europe, but in France basically all mayonnaise includes Dijon mustard, so you can’t just use it straight in an American recipe. I did usually see at least one brand labeled “American mayonnaise” that did not include mustard, but people would need to be aware of the difference.
I’d be curious to know if mayonnaise more or less always included mustard and it was for some reason stripped out of the recipe that made its way to the US (my guess would be the British having some role), or if mustard was a later addition to the French recipe after it had already crossed the Atlantic.
As a German I don't think I've ever seen mustard in regular mayonnaise
It's not universal across Europe, for sure, so I'd say this is A France problem.
Dutch, English, German mayo would be just fine. Can't speak to Spanish or Italian mayo. Farther east, blander it gets.
But the added buttermilk/yogurt really makes it a negligible issue overall.
Mustard is used as an easy "natural" emulsifier to keep things together, since the ingredients in mayo don't really want to be in that configuration and it is easy to "break" that mix.
The amounts needed to do so is very small though, and usually imperceptible at the scale of a whole jar of mayo. Definitely not something you'd notice in most cases.
But again, every brand is different. Some probably are more mustard forward for whatever reason.
That is a good question... Any recipe for homemade mayo I've ever seen includes mustard. A casual investigation makes it seem that mayonnaise originates from France or Spain to begin with (I guess it's contested).
That said, I feel like in France all the mustard I have had is much punchier than what we have here in the States. Possible France has just added more and better mustard as a stabilizer?
It is my understanding that mustard is often used as an emulsifier, especially in homemade mayo. But I don’t really like mayo, so I’m not an expert.
Is the mustard flavor you’re talking about subtle, or in your face?
It should be fairly simple to make a pull through mayo at home if you have a stick mixer.
In the context of making home-made mayo for use in ranch dressing, I would probably lean towards using garlic as the emulsifier, but then I'm a sucker for garlic in general.
Lower the salt and add a bit of white pepper.
If not tangy enough, add a (very small) pinch of citric acid.
can confirm, I also add a touch of lemon juice or rice vinegar.