EMILY: Oh Lorelai, come over here, look. They have cucumber slices in the water.
LORELAI: Oh wow! Now if they have ranch dressing in the soap dispensers, this place is great.
Ranch dressing is an American salad dressing made from buttermilk, onion, garlic, mustard, herbs and spices mixed into a mayonnaise base. It was invented in Alaska in 1949 by a plumbing contractor from Nebraska named Steve Henson, looking for something that his crew would enjoy eating on their salad.
He bought a guest ranch in California in 1956, naming it Hidden Valley Ranch and putting his dressing on the menu. Although the ranch closed only a few years later, Henson was making so much money from selling his “ranch dressing” that it became the headquarters for his thriving condiments business. In1972, Clorox bought the Hidden Valley Branch brand for $8 million.
Ranch dressing has been the most popular salad dressing in the US since 1992.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 