Cooking With Chervil: Eggs, Béarnaise, Salads and When to Add It

Chervil tastes like a cross between parsley and anise, and it’s so delicate that the trick is simple: use it late and use plenty. Its classic home is eggs, from a fines herbes omelet (the usual exception, where it goes in at the start) to a sprinkle over scrambled eggs. It also has a quiet supporting role in béarnaise, where tarragon tends to drown it out.¹ For what chervil is and what’s in it, see the chervil profile.

Where chervil works

Illinois Extension puts it simply: use the leaves much as you’d use parsley, and both leaves and stems can go into the pot.⁶

Eggs and the fines herbes omelet

Eggs are chervil’s classic home, omelets in particular. Fines herbes, a mix that commonly includes parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, goes into omelets, fish, chicken, stews and sauces.

Ratio (Attributed): Jacques Pépin’s fine-herbes omelet uses 1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon of a finely chopped mix of chervil, tarragon and chives. He beats the herbs into the eggs with the salt and pepper before cooking,³ so in an omelet, chervil goes in at the start. The eggs cook fast enough that this is the usual exception to adding it late. For scrambled eggs, a sprinkle of chopped chervil just before serving works well. See fines herbes for more on the blend.

Béarnaise: with tarragon, not instead of it

Tarragon defines béarnaise; it’s essential to the sauce. Chervil belongs there too. In his book on sauces, James Peterson notes that traditional recipes put chervil in the flavor reduction, though he makes it optional in his version, since tarragon’s much stronger flavor tends to cover it.¹ So chervil plays a supporting role in béarnaise. It isn’t a lighter stand-in for tarragon. Want a gentler sauce? Try less tarragon and more chervil in the reduction and the finishing herbs. That’s an experiment, not a classic recipe.

Salads, fish and soups

Chervil goes with fish, salads, soups, eggs, meat dishes, stuffings for poultry and fish, casseroles and sauces. In practice:

• Salads. Toss whole sprigs or roughly torn leaves into a green salad like any other tender herb. Whether to pair them with sharper greens is up to you.
• Fish. Fold chopped chervil into a butter or cream sauce, or scatter it over steamed or poached white fish, and it stays out front. Lighter fish let it show.
• Soups. Stir it in off the heat or use it as a garnish.

When to add it

The usual approach is to add it at the end of cooking, or once the pan is off the heat, and to use it more generously than you would a stronger herb. Omelets, as above, are the exception.

Use the leaves and tender stems. Illinois Extension notes both go into cooking and advises picking leaves when they’re fully open but still tender.⁶

Flowering chervil

Chervil bolts easily. Illinois Extension notes how readily it flowers and suggests sowing every 3 to 4 weeks through the season to keep fresh leaves coming.⁶ PROSEA advises picking leaves and stems before the flower buds open.² Neither says how the flavor of a flowering plant changes, so take flowers as a sign the leaves are past their best for picking, not as a measured flavor problem.

Fresh or dried

Most cooks treat chervil as a fresh herb, and the uses above assume fresh leaves. The sources don’t quite agree on dried. Illinois Extension gives air drying and sealed storage as a way to keep it,⁶ and Tasting Table’s Sylvia Tomczak suggests fresh chervil for garnishes and last-minute additions while saying dried is better for cooking.⁷ We found no test of how much flavor dried chervil keeps. If you use it, cook it into the dish rather than sprinkling it on top. PROSEA’s alternative: chop fresh chervil and freeze it with water in ice cube trays.²

Blends it belongs in

Chervil is a fines herbes herb. It isn’t part of herbes de Provence. The French Label Rouge specification for that blend is built on thyme, rosemary, savory and oregano.⁸ See herbes de Provence for the full recipe.

Related pages

• Chervil uses
• Chervil substitutes
• Chervil vs. parsley and chervil vs. cilantro
• Tarragon, parsley and cilantro