Herbes de Provence Substitutes: Make Your Own or Swap a Blend

Out of herbes de Provence? It’s just dried herbs, so your best substitute is usually a batch you mix yourself. The certified French version, sold under the Label Rouge mark, fixes the herbs at thyme, rosemary, savory and oregano, and it leaves out lavender, which some commercial blends add. Outside that label there’s no fixed recipe, which gives you some room. In everyday cooking, Italian seasoning can typically swap in one for one, and a pinch of thyme or savory moves it closer.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• 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.

Why the herbs can stand in for each other

The main herbs in the blend get much of their smell from related compounds. Thyme, oregano and savory all carry thymol, and oregano and savory share carvacrol too.¹² With that overlap, thyme and oregano should be able to cover for a missing savory, and the other way around. That’s our read of the chemistry; we didn’t find a taste test. Rosemary is the odd one out. It tastes quite unlike the other three. See the herbes de Provence profile for the full table.

If you have the herbs: make your own

1. The Label Rouge proportions

The certified French blend is the one version with published proportions. Ducros’s 2025 specification for its Label Rouge blend lists rosemary, savory and oregano at 27 percent each and thyme at 19 percent.³ The 2014 specification text on the website of France’s INAO, the agency that oversees the label, shows 19 percent thyme, 26 or 27 percent each of rosemary, savory and oregano, and 3 percent basil.⁴

Ratio (Attributed): By the Ducros figures, a teaspoon of blend is roughly 1/4 teaspoon each of rosemary, savory and oregano plus a scant 1/4 teaspoon of thyme. The percentages are the specification’s; the spoon conversion is ours. It’s approximate, because the specification doesn’t say the percentages are by volume, and cut herbs differ in density.

2. The Spice House’s version, with lavender

The Spice House’s mix is mostly thyme and savory, with smaller amounts of marjoram and lavender, just a little rosemary and fennel seed, and a crushed bay leaf.⁵ It’s much lighter on rosemary than the Label Rouge recipe, and it adds lavender, marjoram, fennel and bay.

Ratio (Attributed): Use a homemade mix in place of the same amount of store-bought blend. The Spice House suggests starting with about 1 to 2 teaspoons of the dried blend per pound of meat.⁵

What about lavender?

Lavender isn’t part of the Label Rouge recipe.⁴ The Takeout’s Leah Kaplan writes that it was added to the blend to appeal to tourists. That’s her account, not a documented history.⁶ Feel free to leave it out. The Spice House suggests skipping it or using a very small pinch of lemon zest for brightness instead.⁵

Other recipes

Kaplan reports that Julia Child’s version called for only dried thyme or savory, dried basil and ground fennel seed.⁶ She also suggests grinding the rosemary and fennel before you mix in the other herbs.⁶

If you need a quick swap: Italian seasoning

The USDA’s purchase specification describes Italian seasoning as a blend of thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and basil.⁷ That covers three of the four Label Rouge herbs. It has no savory, and it adds sage. The Spice House says Italian seasoning works in a pinch but lacks lavender and savory, so it won’t taste quite the same.⁵

Ratio (Attributed): The Takeout says you can typically swap the two blends one for one in everyday cooking.⁶ The Spice House names Italian seasoning without giving an amount.⁵

Got thyme or savory? A pinch added to the Italian seasoning moves it closer to herbes de Provence.

If you have only a few of the herbs

Ratio (Method): Thyme is the most useful herb to build on, because its main compound, thymol, also turns up in savory and oregano. Try two parts thyme to one part savory or oregano, plus a little crumbled rosemary if you have it, and use the same total amount as the blend. Adjust the next time you make the dish.

If you have fresh herbs instead of dried

Ratio (Computed): Penn State Extension’s conversion is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs to 1/4 teaspoon powdered herb.⁸ America’s Test Kitchen found that 1 part dried to 3 parts fresh came closest to equal flavor, for hardy herbs in dishes with a fairly long cooking time (more than 20 minutes) and a good amount of liquid.⁹ The Spice House gives the same rough three-to-one rule.⁵ Thyme, rosemary, oregano and savory are all hardy herbs that suit this. Chop them finely and add them early so they have time to soften.

Other blends

Herbes de la Garrigue. World Spice Merchants describes its Herbes de la Garrigue as similar to herbes de Provence, with the additions of rosemary, fennel, mint and Turkish bay leaf.¹⁰ Recipes vary by maker. Ratio (Method): start one for one and taste for mint.

Fines herbes is not a good swap. Britannica lists its common ingredients as parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil.¹¹ Those are delicate herbs, used fresh, and none of them is a main herbes de Provence herb. They belong in a different kind of dish.

What isn’t known

• Outside the Label Rouge, commercial herbes de Provence has no fixed recipe, so a store-bought jar may differ from both recipes above.
• We couldn’t open the final approved text of the current Label Rouge specification. The 2014 text and the 2025 Ducros sheet differ slightly on rosemary, savory, oregano and basil.⁴³

Related

• Herbes de Provence, herbes de Provence uses, cooking with herbes de Provence
• Herbes de Provence vs. Italian seasoning, Italian seasoning, Italian seasoning substitutes
• Thyme, summer savory, winter savory, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, lavender, fennel seed, bay leaves
• Thyme substitutes, summer savory substitutes, lavender substitutes
• Fines herbes, bouquet garni