I have fond memories of my time as a picky eater at a younger age. I wouldn’t eat vegetables without my mom practically forcing them down my throat. My rotation of a diet between chicken tenders, french fries, hamburgers, and hot dogs was always coupled with ketchup, whether it be to put on top, or to dip. ketchup was essentially the only condiment I would use, and that was the case until I came across ranch dressing.

Following my discovery of this condiment, I proceeded to put it with just about anything I could get my hands on, no matter how sickening. A personal favorite of mine was what I dubbed “carrot salad” which consisted of carrots (very few if any), shredded Mexican cheese, and an unreasonable amount of ranch dressing. Why this appealed to my younger self, I’m not quite sure, but I found it to be my go-to after school snack.

Despite my obsession with ranch dressing, I find myself to be quite ignorant in my knowledge of ranch dressing. So much so that until independent research that I had no real idea what it was. After a brief google search of “What is ranch?” I concluded that ranch dressing comes from buttermilk, garlic, onion, and several other herbs and spices. This discovery changes absolutely nothing and will be useless moving forward in life.

I had soon realized that ranch is somewhat controversial in the dipping sauce community. So much so that a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings led to me being ridiculed by my peers for using ranch dressing as opposed to blue cheese dressing or just eating the wings without a sauce. Having never tried blue cheese dressing before I tried it and, and was immediately put off by its bitterness. Not to mention the random chunks of cheese mixed in were quite unsettling. I have also found my family to be disgusted by me dipping my pizza in the ranch. I never come after my brother for him refusing to eat onions under any circumstances, yet he is quick to pounce on the opportunity to remind me how “disgusting” ranch dressing is.

I’m tired of being ridiculed for my love of ranch dressing. It’s time for the dipping sauce community to come together and recognize that everyone is going to have their own favorite sauce, no matter how awful some of those selections may be. May a mutual understanding of personal preference usher in a golden age for the dipping sauce community.