Substitute for Fresh Dill

Dill’s flavor sits mostly in volatile aroma compounds held in its thin, feathery leaves. That shapes every substitute: anything you heat for long loses the same top notes, and anything dried has already lost some of them. Pick the swap by how the dill was going to be used.

Raw dishes and finishing

In tzatziki, cucumber salad, potato salad, gravlax and as a garnish for fish, fresh dill supplies both aroma and a soft, fresh texture. Fennel fronds are the closest match on both counts and go in at the same amount. Chervil is milder and works where dill is one herb among several, such as an omelette or a green salad. Tarragon has the strongest aniseed note, so use half as much and chop it finely.

Dried dill can work in a cold dip, but it needs time. Stir it in, wait 15 minutes, then taste. Added just before serving, it stays papery and tastes dusty.

Cooked dishes

In soups, braises, cream sauces and buttered potatoes, heat strips out much of fresh dill’s aroma anyway, which is why dried dill and frozen dill hold up well here. Use a third as much dried dill as fresh because drying removes the water and concentrates the leaf. Frozen dill goes in at the same amount, straight from the freezer, in the last few minutes of cooking.

Pickles and bread

Pickle recipes often call for whole dill heads, which carry seeds as well as leaves. The seed is what flavors a brine over weeks. The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s dill pickle recipe gives 2 tablespoons of dill seed as the alternative to 4 or 5 heads of fresh dill, which works out to about 1½ teaspoons per head. Dill seed also suits rye and potato breads, where its warm, caraway-like flavor is expected.

When not to substitute

If dill is the main flavor, as in gravlax, a Scandinavian dill sauce for salmon or Eastern European dill potatoes, every swap makes a noticeably different dish. Fennel fronds come closest, but the result tastes of fennel. In those recipes, frozen or dried dill (with resting time) is a better choice than another herb.

Parsley is often suggested as a stand-in. It adds the same green color and freshness, but none of dill’s flavor, so treat it as a garnish rather than a substitute.

Common mistakes

• Using dried dill one-to-one. A full tablespoon of dried leaf in place of a tablespoon of fresh makes a sauce taste of hay.
• Cooking delicate herbs too long. Fennel fronds, chervil and fresh dill itself lose their aroma after a few minutes of simmering. Add them off the heat.
• Grabbing fennel seed instead of fronds. The seeds are far stronger and push the whole dish toward licorice.
• Treating dill seed as dill weed. A teaspoon of seed in a yogurt sauce is gritty and tastes like rye bread.