Chervil: The Anise-Scented Fines Herbe, Its Chemistry and Uses

Think of a soft cross between parsley and tarragon, sweet and green with a faint anise scent, and you’ve got chervil. This delicate, lacy herb is one of the classic French fines herbes, and its flavor is so light that it usually goes in raw or at the very end of cooking, by the handful. It shares its main aroma compound, methyl chavicol, with tarragon, and that compound is behind the one safety note at the end of this page.

At a glance

What chervil is

Chervil is an annual or biennial of the temperate biome. It’s cultivated in Europe for its lacy, finely divided aromatic leaves, with the essential oil held in ducts that run along the veins of the leaflets. The name came into Old English as cerfelle, from Latin chaerephyllum and Greek khairephyllon.

Flavor and aroma

Chervil has a delicate smell and a taste reminiscent of anise. The flavor is light and parsley-like, with a hint of myrrh. Think of a soft cross between parsley and tarragon: sweet and green, not sharp.

The compounds

PROSEA characterizes chervil oil by three constituents: undecane, methyl chavicol (also called estragole) and methyl eugenol.¹ One analysis of water-distilled oil from chervil growing wild in Turkey found methyl chavicol at 83.10%, 1-allyl-2,4-dimethoxybenzene at 15.15% and undecane at 1.75%.² That’s a single wild population, so take those numbers as one sample, not a standard profile.

Methyl chavicol is also the main aroma compound in tarragon. The EU Scientific Committee on Food puts it at 60–75% of tarragon oil.³ The two herbs share that compound, but no source we found measures how much of chervil’s anise-like taste comes from it. We also didn’t find a published figure for how much essential oil the fresh leaf contains.

Origin and history

Kew gives the native range as east-central Europe to northwest and northern Iran, listing Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, the Balkans, Türkiye, the Caucasus, Iran and Iraq, among others.⁴ Britannica says the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions and western Asia,⁵ and PROSEA says southeastern Europe, western Asia and central and southern Russia.¹ These overlap more than they conflict.

PROSEA says chervil has been grown in Europe since the 16th century and is now grown all over the world.¹ You’ll see stories about Roman soldiers spreading it, and about what Pliny or Culpeper thought it could cure. We couldn’t trace them to a source, so we’ve left them out.

How chervil is used

Chervil is one of the traditional fines herbes of French cooking, and its fresh leaves and stems flavor soups, casseroles, salads, sauces and eggs, especially omelets. It also goes into fish and meat dishes and stuffings for poultry and fish.

Fines herbes. Fines herbes is a mix of herbs used as a seasoning or garnish, commonly parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, though the exact mix varies. Fish, chicken, stews, sauces and omelets are typical uses. See fines herbes and fines herbes substitutes. We found no source that puts chervil in herbes de Provence, which is a different blend.

Technique

The flavor is so light that chervil usually goes in raw or at the very end of cooking, and by the handful. It’s also lovely with spring vegetables like asparagus and young carrots, and with soft or fresh cheeses. For more, see chervil uses and cooking with chervil.

Buying and storage

PROSEA advises picking the leaves and stems before the flower buds open. To keep it, PROSEA suggests chopping fresh chervil and freezing it with water in ice cube trays, and storing dried leaves in an airtight container. Commercially, fresh chervil is kept from wilting with vacuum pre-cooling and refrigerated transport.¹ We found no sourced shelf-life figure for fresh or dried chervil.

Safety

Chervil is generally recognized as safe in the United States (GRAS 2279). The one caution concerns its main aroma compounds. PROSEA notes that methyl chavicol and methyl eugenol are carcinogenic in rats.¹ The EU Scientific Committee on Food concluded in 2001 that estragole (methyl chavicol) is genotoxic and carcinogenic, based mainly on studies in which mice were given it orally. It couldn’t set a safe exposure limit and recommended reducing exposure. The committee’s estimate of average estragole intake, 4.3 mg a day for consumers, covers all sources, and it couldn’t separate herbs from flavorings.³ Neither source gives a figure for chervil used as a kitchen herb.

Chervil often gets credit for lowering blood pressure and for being rich in vitamins and minerals. We’re not claiming chervil treats or prevents any condition, and we couldn’t get USDA nutrient data for it.

Substitutes and comparisons

See chervil substitutes for ranked options, and:

• Chervil vs. parsley
• Chervil vs. cilantro

Related profiles: parsley, tarragon, chives.