Spice Comparisons · Comparison
Tarragon vs. Dill: Two Licorice-Edged Herbs With Different Chemistry
Both taste a little of licorice, both are soft green herbs you add at the end, and they get swapped for each other all the time. Yet tarragon and dill aren’t even in the same plant family. By one food writer’s account, tarragon is the stronger one, with a clear anise hit, while dill is gentler, warmer and closer to caraway.1 Their oils differ too: tarragon’s is mostly estragole, the compound that puts it in food-safety discussions.2
Side by side
| Tarragon | Dill | |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Artemisia dracunculus L. | Anethum graveolens L. |
| Family | Asteraceae (daisy family) | Apiaceae (carrot and parsley family) |
| Life cycle | Perennial, about 2 to 3 feet tall (French tarragon) | Annual, up to 1.5 m tall |
| Native range | Temperate Northern Hemisphere to tropical mountains (Kew)3 | North Africa to Chad and Iran to the Arabian Peninsula (Kew); Britannica says the Mediterranean and southeastern Europe45 |
| Leaves | Dark green, narrow and slightly twisted | Finely divided into many thread-like segments |
| Types | French (the cooking type) and Russian (sets seed, lacks French tarragon’s flavor) | Leaf (dill weed) and seed, which taste different |
| Main compounds in the leaf oil | Estragole: 60 to 75% of tarragon oil (EU Scientific Committee on Food); about 77% in one French oil (PROSEA)26 | Phellandrene about 35% and dill ether about 25% of dill herb oil (PROSEA)7 |
| Oil in the dried herb | 0.2 to 1.0%6 | 0.1 to 1.5%7 |
| Flavor, per the sources | Sweet anise-like scent, a peculiar bittersweet flavor (PROSEA)6 | Warm, slightly sharp, somewhat like caraway (Britannica);5 slightly bitter and pungent (PROSEA)7 |
| Flavor | Assertive, cool anise | Fresh, grassy, faintly anise |
| Heat | A delicate, volatile herb | A delicate, volatile herb; add the leaves at the end |
| Signature uses | Béarnaise, fines herbes, tarragon vinegar | Pickles, fish, eastern European and Scandinavian cooking |
The oil figures come from different studies of different samples, gathered by different reference works, so they show what leads each oil, not a head-to-head measurement. The oil-content figures are both PROSEA’s, for dried herb.
Why they taste different
Both herbs get called licorice-like. A Couple Cooks says tarragon has a licorice or anise finish similar to dill’s, but much stronger.1 The University of Illinois Extension calls tarragon’s taste licorice or anise.
The chemistry isn’t the same, though. Tarragon’s oil is dominated by estragole, also called methyl chavicol.2 Dill leaf oil is led by phellandrene and a compound PROSEA calls 3,9-epoxy-p-menth-1-ene, known as dill ether.7 None of the sources we reviewed tests which compound gives either herb its anise impression, so we’re naming the main compounds without claiming they cause the flavor.
Dill seed is a third flavor again. Its oil is led by limonene and carvone,7 the reason Britannica compares dill to caraway. Dill seed won’t stand in for tarragon; see dill seed vs. dill weed.
Fresh, dried and heat
Both herbs are best fresh and added late. America’s Test Kitchen lists dill and tarragon among the delicate herbs whose flavor compounds are more volatile, and its tasters preferred fresh herbs to dried in all but one test.8 Dill leaves go in at the end of cooking.
Drying hurts tarragon more. Its flavor fades quickly when the leaves are dried, so use it fresh whenever you can.9 For dried amounts, LSU’s general rule is one tablespoon of finely cut fresh herbs to one teaspoon of crumbled dried. That’s a rule for herbs in general, not for either of these specifically.10 See dried tarragon vs. fresh and fresh dill vs. dried dill.
Can one stand in for the other?
In a pinch, yes, as long as you mind the strength. These are a food writer’s rules of thumb.
| Swap | Ratio | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh tarragon for fresh dill | Equal amounts (A Couple Cooks)1 | Attributed |
| Dried tarragon for dried dill | Equal amounts (A Couple Cooks)1 | Attributed |
| Dill for tarragon, fresh for fresh or dried for dried | 1:1 (A Couple Cooks)11 | Attributed |
Tarragon in place of dill. The same source calls tarragon much stronger,1 so start with half and add more after tasting. Add it at the end, as you would dill. There’s no sourced reason to cook tarragon longer to tame it, and both herbs lose flavor to heat. If you’re using dried tarragon, make sure it still smells of anise, since drying strips its flavor fast.
Dill in place of tarragon. A Couple Cooks says dill tastes different from tarragon but works in a pinch.11 In a béarnaise, where tarragon is essential, you’ll end up with a different sauce. In eggs, fish and creamy dressings the swap is more forgiving.
For other options, see tarragon substitutes and dill substitutes.
Where each belongs
Tarragon. It’s an essential ingredient in béarnaise, and one of the usual herbs in fines herbes, with parsley, chives and chervil. The leaves are especially good with chicken, eggs and lobster, and tarragon vinegar is made by adding the herb to wine vinegar. It also goes into oils, marinades and salads.
Dill. Think soups, salads, sauces, fish, sandwich fillings and above all pickles. Dill is especially popular in eastern European and Scandinavian cooking. Gravlax, borscht, potatoes and yogurt sauces are classic uses.
A note on estragole
Estragole is the compound that pulls tarragon into food-safety discussions. The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food concluded in 2001 that it’s genotoxic and carcinogenic, based mainly on studies in mice, and couldn’t set a safe exposure limit.2 A 2011 review judged the cancer risk to humans extremely small.12 Neither gives a safe or unsafe amount of tarragon leaf in cooking. See tarragon for more.
What isn’t known
- No source tests which compound gives either herb its anise note.
- Tarragon often gets called the “king of herbs” in France, and is often said to be harder to find than dill outside France. We found no source for either.
Related
- Tarragon, tarragon substitutes, tarragon uses and too much tarragon
- Dill, dill substitutes, cooking with dill and too much dill
- Fennel vs. dill, tarragon vs. thyme and tarragon vs. rosemary
- Fines herbes
Footnotes
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Sonja Overhiser, “Best Dill Substitute”, A Couple Cooks. acouplecooks.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food on Estragole, European Commission, 2001. food.ec.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
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Artemisia dracunculus L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩
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Anethum graveolens L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩
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“Dill”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩ ↩2
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C.C. de Guzman and R.A. Reglos, Artemisia dracunculus, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Nguyen Thi Tâm, C.C. de Guzman and P.C.M. Jansen, Anethum graveolens, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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“Science: Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
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“Tarragon: French”, University of Illinois Extension. extension.illinois.edu · Reference work ↩
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“Flavorful Herbs”, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com · Reference work ↩
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Sonja Overhiser, “Best Tarragon Substitute”, A Couple Cooks, 2026. acouplecooks.com · Publication ↩ ↩2
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Obolskiy et al., “Artemisia dracunculus L. (Tarragon): A Critical Review”, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2011. discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk · Peer-reviewed ↩
Also drawn on
- Tarragon (Britannica Editors, updated 8 Oct 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Fines herbes, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com