Cooking With Lavender: Dos, Don'ts and How Much to Use

Lavender is easy to overdo and hard to undo. Too much, and a dish tastes soapy, perfumy and bitter. So start small: the Herb Society of America says to use less than you think and add as you go.¹ Get the species right, measure carefully, and infuse it instead of leaving buds to chew on, and it works in sweets, drinks and a few savory dishes. Lavender lemonade is a good first project.

At a glance

Question	Short answer
Which lavender?	English (true) lavender, Lavandula angustifolia; the Herb Society calls it the most delightful species to cook with¹
Which part?	The flower buds, usually dried²¹
Fresh vs. dried	Dried buds are about three times as strong as fresh (Herb Society; Maureen Abood)¹³
Easiest method	Infuse it: syrup, honey, sugar, cream or milk, then strain¹⁴
Pairs with	Lemon or orange juice, cream and custard; rosemary, sage and thyme in savory dishes¹
Is it safe to eat?	NCCIH says lavender is likely safe in the amounts used in food⁵
In herbes de Provence?	Not in the French Label Rouge recipe; added to some commercial blends⁶

Choose the right lavender

Lavandula angustifolia, English or true lavender, is a mint-family plant, and the Herb Society calls it the most delightful species to cook with. Lavandins (L. × intermedia) and L. stoechas tend to be high in cineole and camphor, which bring a strong, astringent smell and a bitter taste. A few lavandin cultivars, like ‘Provence’ and ‘Gros Bleu’, are lower in both and can work in savory dishes.¹

Common names will trip you up. Britannica calls L. stoechas French lavender, while the Herb Society calls it Spanish lavender,²¹ so “French” on a label tells you very little. Look for the botanical name, or for buds sold as culinary lavender. Maureen Abood warns that lavender that isn’t an edible variety will taste too strong and camphorous.³ Lavender grown for crafts or bought from a florist may have been sprayed, so buy food-grade buds or use your own unsprayed plants.

For cultivar picks by flavor, see the lavender profile.

How much to use

Start small. Here’s what named sources use:

Source	Use	Amount
US Lavender Growers Association (Mt Airy Lavender recipe)⁴	Simple syrup	2 tablespoons dried culinary buds per 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar
Maureen Abood³	Lavender sugar	1 teaspoon dried buds, or 1 tablespoon fresh, per 1 cup sugar

Fresh vs. dried (Attributed): The Herb Society says dried buds are three times more concentrated than fresh blooms,¹ and Abood also uses about a third as much dried as fresh.³ So if a recipe calls for dried lavender and you have fresh, use about three times as much, and the other way around. Neither source says where the figure comes from.

Ratio (Method): Making up your own recipe? Try 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of dried buds for a batch of cookies or a quart of custard base, taste, and go up next time if you want more.

Infuse it

Steep lavender in a liquid, fat or sugar and then strain it out, and you get the aroma without the papery buds.

Syrup. In the US Lavender Growers Association recipe, water and sugar come to a boil until the sugar dissolves, the pan comes off the heat, the buds get stirred in and steep 1 to 6 hours, and the syrup is strained and kept in the fridge up to three weeks.⁴ Steeping time is your control. Taste at an hour and strain when it’s strong enough.
Honey. The Herb Society suggests infusing lavender in simple syrup or honey for lemonade, iced tea, coffee, cocktails or meringue.¹
Cream and custard. The Herb Society also infuses lavender before adding it to pudding, custard, crème fraîche, ice cream or whipped cream.¹ Warm the dairy, steep, strain, then carry on with the recipe.
Sugar. Abood layers buds with sugar in a clean jar and lets it sit a day before using it. She says it keeps six months or longer and suggests shaking the jar now and then.³ You’ll see instructions to leave it at least a week, but in Abood’s method a day is enough to start. Sift out the buds before baking if you want a smooth texture.

Lavender sugar is a forgiving place to start, because the flavor is spread through the sugar instead of packed into a few buds.

Flavors that work with it

Citrus. The Herb Society suggests balancing lavender with something bright, like lemon or orange juice.¹ Lavender lemonade is a good first project.
Dairy and sweets. Cookies, cakes, custards, ice cream and meringue are all on the Herb Society’s list.¹ Lavender sometimes flavors drinks, too.
Savory. The Herb Society suggests lower-camphor lavandins blended with other herbs under the skin of a roast chicken, or with beef, especially alongside rosemary, sage and thyme.¹ Illinois Extension lists pork, fish and chicken dishes.⁷ Lamb seems a natural fit, though we found no source that names it.

Avoid the soapy taste

Too much lavender is the usual way it goes wrong: soapy, perfumy and bitter. The Herb Society blames the harsh, bitter edge of some lavenders on cineole and camphor,¹ one more reason to use L. angustifolia. Beyond picking the right plant:

Measure; do not eyeball.
Infuse and strain rather than leaving whole buds in a dish.
Grind buds finely, or chop them, if they stay in a dough, so no one bites into a whole bud.
Add more next time rather than more now, as the Herb Society advises.¹

Lavender and herbes de Provence

You’ll often read that lavender is central to herbes de Provence. The French Label Rouge specification for the blend lists thyme, rosemary, savory, oregano and basil, and no lavender,⁶ though some commercial blends include it. See cooking with herbes de Provence.

Safety

FDA lists lavender among spices generally recognized as safe,⁸ and NCCIH says lavender is likely safe in the amounts typically used in foods.⁵ The health research on lavender is about concentrated oil products and aromatherapy, not food; see the lavender profile.

Storage

We found no published shelf life for dried culinary lavender. Keep the buds airtight and away from light and heat, and go by smell. See how to store lavender and how to dry lavender.

Not yet measured

A general amount of lavender per serving; only individual recipe amounts exist.
The basis of the three-to-one dried-to-fresh figure.
How cultivar choice changes the right amount.
How long lavender syrup or sugar keeps its aroma, beyond the recipe authors’ own guidance.

Paola Legarre, Lavender in the Kitchen: Flavor Profiles Across Species and Cultivars, The Herb Society of America, 2025. blog.herbsociety.org · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶
Lavender, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Maureen Abood, How to make lavender sugar, 2013. maureenabood.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Lavender Simple Syrup (Mt Airy Lavender), US Lavender Growers Association. uslavender.org · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Lavender, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, 2025. nccih.nih.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Label Rouge Herbes de Provence (LA 02/03), specification modification request, INAO, 2014. extranet.inao.gouv.fr · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Herb Gardening: Lavender, University of Illinois Extension. extension.illinois.edu · Reference work ↩
21 CFR 182.10, US Food and Drug Administration. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩

Cooking With Lavender: Which Lavender, How Much and How to Infuse It