Fines Herbes: What's in It and How to Use It

Fines herbes (“fine herbs”) is a French mix of tender herbs, most often parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, that you use to season or finish eggs, fish, chicken and sauces. It tastes light, green and gently aniseed, and the anise note comes from a compound tarragon and chervil share. There’s no fixed proportion: Jacques Pépin’s omelet makes parsley half the blend. And it’s a fresh-herb mix at heart, since tarragon and chives lose much of their flavor when dried.

At a glance


What it is	A French mixture of herbs used as a seasoning or garnish
Usual herbs	Parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil; the mix varies
Occasional addition	Burnet
Typical dishes	Omelets and other eggs, fish, chicken, stews, sauces
Form	Fresh, chopped; tarragon and chives lose much of their flavor when dried¹²
Main aroma compound behind the anise note	Estragole (methyl chavicol), 60–75% of tarragon oil³

What goes in it

Fines herbes is a mixture of herbs used as a seasoning or garnish. The herbs vary, but they usually include parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil. Britannica also names burnet as a fines herbes ingredient.⁴ You’ll sometimes see marjoram listed online as an optional fifth herb, but none of the sources we opened backs that up.

There’s no fixed proportion. Equal parts gets suggested a lot, but Jacques Pépin’s fine-herbes omelet, for one, uses a tablespoon of chopped parsley and a tablespoon of a mix of chervil, tarragon and chives, so parsley is half the blend.⁵ For a bigger batch, Pépin’s ratio is a good place to start. Adjust the tarragon to taste, since it’s the strongest of the four.

Flavor, herb by herb

Put together, it tastes fresh and green, with a soft anise note over a mild onion background. Here’s where that comes from.

Herb	What it brings	Source
Tarragon	Anise-like; estragole makes up 60–75% of tarragon’s essential oil	³
Chervil	Light, parsley-like with a hint of myrrh; its oil is characterized by undecane, methyl chavicol (estragole) and methyl eugenol	⁶
Chives	Mild onion flavor	¹
Parsley	Fresh, grassy base

Tarragon and chervil share estragole, which is why the blend tastes gently aniseed.⁶³

How fines herbes are used

Fish, chicken, stews, sauces and omelets are the classic uses. Chervil, one of the traditional fines herbes, flavors soups, salads, sauces and eggs, especially omelets.

When to add it. These are delicate herbs. LSU AgCenter groups parsley and chives among the herbs best added in the last minute or two of cooking, and Wisconsin Extension says chives usually get sprinkled on just before serving.⁷¹ Omelets are the main exception: Pépin beats the herbs into the raw eggs before cooking.⁵ For sauces, butters and vinaigrettes, stir the herbs in at the end.

Fresh or dried. You can buy jars labeled fines herbes, but fresh herbs are the whole point of the mix. Tarragon loses its flavor quickly when the leaves are dried, and chives lose much of theirs in drying.²¹ Pépin describes his omelet as a mix of fresh herbs folded into eggs.⁵

Not from Provence

Fines herbes is a French term, but we found no source tying the mix to Provence specifically. It’s a different thing from herbes de Provence. The French Label Rouge specification for herbes de Provence is built on thyme, rosemary and savory, with oregano, all dried.⁸ None of Britannica’s four usual fines herbes is on that list. It isn’t a bouquet garni either. That’s the bundle of parsley, thyme and bay that cooks in a dish and comes out before serving.

A quote attributed to Escoffier, criticizing omelets “aux fines herbes” made with parsley alone, gets passed around a lot. We couldn’t open the passage in his Guide Culinaire, so we don’t quote it here.

Safety

Tarragon and chervil both contain estragole.⁶³ In 2001 the EU’s Scientific Committee on Food concluded that estragole has been shown to be genotoxic and carcinogenic, mainly in studies of mice, and recommended reducing exposure.³ The committee estimated average intake from all sources at about 4.3 mg a day for consumers.³ For more, see the tarragon profile.

We make no claim that fines herbes treat or prevent any condition. You use small amounts in cooking, and nutrition figures for each herb are on its own profile page.

If one herb is missing, use more of the others. If it’s tarragon, a little chervil or a pinch of fennel frond keeps the anise note. See fines herbes substitutes.

Susan Mahr, “Chives, Allium schoenoprasum”, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. hort.extension.wisc.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
“Tarragon: French”, University of Illinois Extension. extension.illinois.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food on Estragole, European Commission, 2001. food.ec.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
“Fines herbes”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩
Jacques Pépin, “Fine-Herbes Omelet: Conventional and Classic”, KQED (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001). kqed.org · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
M.A. Nichols, Anthriscus cerefolium, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³
“Flavorful Herbs”, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com · Reference work ↩
Cahier des charges du Label Rouge LA 02/03 “Herbes de Provence”, INAO. extranet.inao.gouv.fr · Regulator ↩

Fines Herbes: The Four Delicate Herbs of French Cooking