Dill Substitutes for Dill Weed and Dill Seed

Out of fresh dill? Use fresh tarragon or fennel fronds, or dried dill at a third of the amount. For dill seed, reach for caraway, which shares its two main flavor compounds. First, though, check which dill your recipe means: the feathery leaf (dill weed) and the dried fruit (dill seed) taste different, because their oils are led by different compounds. And if you’re making pickles, fresh dill heads and dill seed swap cleanly, by a tested recipe’s own numbers.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

A Couple Cooks, the food blog behind the tarragon ratios below, opens its guide by warning that dill is hard to replace.¹ None of the herb-for-herb figures here measures flavor strength.

If fresh dill is a finishing herb

This is dill weed’s main job: soups, salads, sauces, fish, sandwich fillings and pickles. It’s a delicate herb. LSU AgCenter lists dill leaves among the herbs to add at the end of cooking, because long heat costs flavor and aroma.²

1. Fresh tarragon

Tarragon has a sweet, anise-like scent and a peculiar bittersweet flavor. Its oil is made up differently from dill leaf oil, so tarragon won’t copy dill. What it shares is a fresh, slightly anise-tinged impression, and it does the same job at the end of cooking. A Couple Cooks says tarragon has a similar licorice or anise finish but is much stronger.¹

Tarragon doesn’t handle long cooking any better than dill. America’s Test Kitchen lists both among the delicate herbs whose flavor compounds tend to be more volatile.³ Add it at the end, like you would dill.

Ratio (Attributed): A Couple Cooks says to use equal amounts of fresh tarragon in place of fresh dill.¹ Since the same source calls tarragon much stronger, you might start with half and add more after tasting.

2. Fennel fronds

A Couple Cooks calls fresh fennel fronds the next best substitute for fresh dill. They look just like it and have a subtle licorice finish, though the match isn’t exact.¹ The University of Illinois Extension says fennel has an anise or licorice flavor and suggests tossing a few fronds into a salad.⁴ Reach for fronds when dill’s look matters, as on a fish platter or in a salad.

Ratio (Method): Start with the same amount as the dill and taste.

If you have the other form of dill

Usually the best dill substitute is dill in another form.

Ratio (Computed): A Couple Cooks gives 1 tablespoon of fresh dill to 1 teaspoon of dried.¹ That matches the general extension rule: LSU AgCenter and Penn State Extension both give 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs as equal to 1 teaspoon of dried.²⁵ America’s Test Kitchen tested the same proportion and found that 1 part dried herb to 3 parts fresh came closest to equal flavor strength. ATK adds a caution that applies to dill: its tasters preferred fresh herbs to dried in all but one use.³ Dried dill does best in dips, dressings and rubs, not as a fresh garnish.

Dried tarragon for dried dill

Ratio (Attributed): A Couple Cooks says equal amounts of dried tarragon can replace dried dill.¹ The University of Illinois Extension warns that tarragon loses its flavor quickly once the leaves are dried,⁶ so make sure your jar still smells of anise.

If dill is flavoring pickles

Dill’s flower heads and ripe fruits are both used to flavor pickled cucumbers, onions and vinegar. That makes heads and seed the natural swap for each other.

Ratio (Attributed): In the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s tested recipe for quick fresh-pack dill pickles, each pint jar gets either 1 1/2 heads of fresh dill or 1 1/2 teaspoons of dill seed.⁷

The NCHFP also says to use only recipes with tested proportions and not to change the vinegar, food or water proportions.⁸ That warning names those three and doesn’t address herb swaps, so if you change the dill, keep everything else exactly as written.

If dill seed is the ingredient

Dill seed goes into breads, pickles, cabbage dishes and potato salads, where its carvone note matters.

1. Caraway seed

Caraway is the closest chemical match: its oil is led by the same two compounds that lead dill fruit oil.⁹¹⁰ Dill’s flavor is itself reminiscent of caraway. Expect a more anise-tinged result, though, since caraway’s aroma is reminiscent of anise.

Ratio (Method): Start with half the dill seed amount and taste, adding more if the dish needs it.

2. Not dill weed

Dill weed doesn’t stand in for dill seed, or the other way around, because their oils are led by different compounds.¹⁰ See dill seed vs. dill weed.

What isn’t known

• Thyme, rosemary and basil sometimes show up on lists of dill substitutes. No source we reviewed recommends them, and none shares dill’s main compounds.

Related

• Dill, cooking with dill and how to store dill
• Fresh dill vs. dried dill and dill seed vs. dill weed
• Tarragon vs. dill, fennel vs. dill and tarragon
• Bronze fennel, fennel seed and caraway seeds
• Pickling spice and too much dill