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Tarragon vs. Thyme: Two French Kitchen Herbs That Do Different Jobs

By · Reviewed · 20 sources

Béarnaise calls for tarragon; a classic bouquet garni calls for thyme. Both are French-kitchen staples, but they do very different jobs there: tarragon brings a sweet anise note and wants to go in fresh, at the end, while thyme brings savory depth and shrugs off drying and long cooking.1 Their oils don’t even share a main compound: tarragon’s is mostly estragole,2 and thyme’s is marked by thymol and carvacrol.3 Read on for why one makes a poor stand-in for the other, and where each one shines, from fines herbes to Jamaican jerk.

Side by side

TarragonThyme
SpeciesArtemisia dracunculus L.Thymus vulgaris L., common or garden thyme
FamilyAsteraceae (daisy family)Lamiaceae (mint family), with marjoram
Native rangeTemperate Northern Hemisphere to tropical mountains (Kew)Southwestern Europe and southeastern Italy (Kew)
Kinds soldFrench tarragon, the cooking type; Russian tarragon, grown from seed, lacks French tarragon’s smell and flavorCommon thyme, plus others such as lemon thyme, a hybrid with common thyme as one parent
LeavesDark green, narrow and slightly twistedTiny: blade 3 to 8 mm long, dotted with oil glands3
Main oil compoundsEstragole: 60 to 75% of tarragon oil (EU Scientific Committee on Food)2Thymol and carvacrol; one T. vulgaris oil had 42.44% thymol and 2.28% carvacrol (Dong et al. 2023)34
Flavor, per the sourcesSweet anise-like scent, bittersweet flavor (PROSEA);5 licorice or anise (Illinois Extension)6Not described in the sources; savory, sharp and slightly medicinal
StrengthMedium-strength herb (University of Delaware)7Medium-strength herb (University of Delaware)7
DriedFlavor quickly lost on dryingDried thyme fared reasonably well in long, liquid cooking (ATK)1
When to addDelicate and volatile; lateHearty; can go in early
Signature blendsFines herbesBouquet garni, herbes de Provence, Italian seasoning

The two compound rows come from different studies and different samples. Thyme especially varies. PROSEA describes six chemotypes of Mediterranean thyme, including one where thymol and carvacrol are each below 5%.3

Why they taste so different

Tarragon tastes of anise or licorice. Its oil is dominated by estragole, also called methyl chavicol.2 Thyme’s oil is marked by thymol and carvacrol.3 None of these sources tests which compound produces which flavor note, so we’re naming the leading compounds without claiming they cause the taste.

Both herbs come in more than one kind, and with both, the name on the label matters:

  • Tarragon. Seed sold as tarragon is Russian tarragon, which lacks the smell and flavor of French tarragon. True French tarragon never sets viable seed and is sold only as plants.6
  • Thyme. Lemon thyme is a hybrid of T. pulegioides and common thyme. See thyme vs. lemon thyme.

Fresh, dried and heat

Here’s the practical divide.

  • Tarragon is best fresh and late. It loses its flavor quickly when the leaves are dried. America’s Test Kitchen lists tarragon among the delicate herbs whose flavor compounds are more volatile.
  • Thyme handles drying and long cooking. In ATK’s tests, dried rosemary, sage and thyme held up reasonably well in dishes with long cooking times and plenty of liquid.1 ATK groups thyme with the hearty herbs that go in early, whose flavor compounds are somewhat more heat-stable.8

Can one stand in for the other?

Not closely. The University of Delaware puts both in its medium-strength group,7 so neither bulldozes the other, but the flavors don’t overlap.

SwapRatioTreatment
Tarragon for thymeStart small and taste. The Spice House suggests tarragon in a rub when thyme is missing9Method
Thyme for tarragonNo source recommends itMethod

Tarragon for thyme. In a rub or a quick chicken or fish dish, start with about half the thyme amount of tarragon and taste. You’ll get an anise note instead of a savory one. In a long braise or stock, tarragon is a poor stand-in because it’s a delicate herb. Oregano, marjoram or savory are closer matches; see thyme substitutes.

Thyme for tarragon. In béarnaise or fines herbes, thyme makes a different dish. Where tarragon is a background herb in a chicken or vegetable dish, a small pinch of thyme keeps things savory without pretending to be tarragon. For anise-leaning options, see tarragon 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. It suits chicken, egg and lobster dishes, and tarragon vinegar is made with wine vinegar.

Thyme. Use it with butter, cheese, fish, meat and soups. It goes into the classic French blends. The classic bouquet garni is parsley and thyme sprigs with a bay leaf, and the French Label Rouge specification for herbes de Provence calls for 19 percent thyme.10 The USDA’s purchasing specification for Italian seasoning lists thyme with rosemary, sage, oregano and basil.11 Outside France, Smithsonian Magazine names fresh thyme, with allspice, as essential to Jamaican jerk,12 and a University of California extension recipe page says za’atar at its most basic includes thyme, with sumac, oregano and sesame.13

What isn’t known

  • You’ll often hear that dried tarragon works better than fresh as a thyme stand-in. No source tests it.

Footnotes

  1. “Science: Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food on Estragole, European Commission, 2001. food.ec.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. S.H. Widodo, Thymus vulgaris, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Dong et al., “Chemical Compositions of Essential Oil Extracted from Eight Thyme Species”, Plants, 2023. mdpi.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

  5. C.C. de Guzman and R.A. Reglos, Artemisia dracunculus, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

  6. “Tarragon: French”, University of Illinois Extension. extension.illinois.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2

  7. “Using Herbs and Spices”, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, 2025. udel.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Liz Bomze, “Our Guide to Fresh Herbs”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2019. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

  9. “The 11 Best Thyme Substitutes”, The Spice House, 2018. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩

  10. Label Rouge “Herbes de Provence” (LA 02/03), specification modification request, INAO, 2014. extranet.inao.gouv.fr · Regulator ↩

  11. Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩

  12. Vaughn Stafford Gray, “A Brief History of Jamaican Jerk”, Smithsonian Magazine, 2020. smithsonianmag.com · Publication ↩

  13. “Za’atar Spice Blend”, UC Cooperative Extension Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County. ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

  • Artemisia dracunculus L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
  • Thymus vulgaris L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
  • Thymus × citriodorus (Pers.) Schreb., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
  • Tarragon (Britannica Editors, updated 8 Oct 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
  • Fines herbes, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
  • Bouquet garni, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
  • Origanum majorana L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org