Dill
Bright, herbal, and aromatic herb with feathery leaves and a fresh, clean flavor all its own
Storage
A plastic or mesh produce bag in the fridge is all field-fresh dill needs. If yours is older or from the store, stand it in a jar with an inch of water under a loose plastic bag and change the water every few days.
Keeps For
Field-fresh dill keeps a couple of weeks in a bag in the fridge. Store-bought is often already a week or more old, so expect closer to 5–7 days.
Flavor Profile
Bright, herbal, cool, clean, and fresh, with a flavor that's hard to compare to anything else—it really just tastes like dill. The easiest way to place it is by the dishes you already know it from: dill pickles, ranch, tzatziki, and gravlax all lean on that signature note. It goes especially well with savory and acidic dishes—anything creamy, tangy, or seafood-based. The feathery leaves are tender; the stems are edible but stronger in flavor.
How to Prep
Cut it with a knife or snip it with scissors. The leaves and tender upper stems are ideal for fresh use, and thicker stems can go into stocks or pickling brines. Try not to wash it until you're about to use it—washing ahead of time greatly cuts its shelf life. If you do need to rinse it, say to clear out aphids, do it right before using.
Ways to Cook
- 1 Stir into ranch or yogurt-based dressings
- 2 Add to scrambled eggs or potato salad
- 3 Toss with cucumbers and vinegar for a fast pickle-ish salad
- 4 Mix into butter, sour cream, or soft cheeses for a spread
- 5 Sprinkle over roasted salmon or folded into fish cakes
Pairs Well With
Good to Know
Dill wilts and yellows as it ages—limp, darkening, or slimy fronds are past their best. A little fresh dill goes a long way, so start modest and add more to taste.
Did You Know?
The Greeks and Romans prized dill as a sign of wealth and good fortune—it was even said to be rubbed on gladiators before they stepped into the arena.
Recipe Inspiration
Common Questions About Dill
Is dill weed the same as dill?
Yes—'dill weed' is just the traditional name for the feathery fronds of the dill plant. It's the same thing as fresh dill. The term distinguishes the leaves from dill seed, which is the dried seed used as a spice. When a recipe calls for dill weed, use fresh dill fronds.
Can you use dill stems?
Yes. The tender upper stems have plenty of flavor and can be chopped right along with the fronds. A good rule of thumb: once a plant starts to flower, its stems turn tougher and woodier—so those thicker stems are better for stocks, pickling brines, or anywhere you'll strain them out. Don't throw the stems away—they're usable.
Can you freeze dill?
Yes, and it freezes better than many herbs. One of the lucky things about dill is that you're usually after its flavor, not its texture—and texture is exactly what freezing wrecks—so you hold onto most of what you actually want. Chop it and freeze in ice cube trays with water or olive oil, or freeze whole sprigs in a bag. They'll be limp when thawed but still flavorful. Frozen dill works great in cooked dishes, dressings, and sauces. Drying is also an option—you'll keep more flavor with freezing, but dried dill genuinely holds onto a great flavor, albeit one that's a little different from fresh. It's one of the few herbs for which that's really true.
What kind of dill is best for pickling?
Honestly, you can use whatever kind of dill you have on hand—we're not overly sacred about pickles here at the farm. Different pickles are just different, and there are plenty of herb combinations that give their own distinct flavors. What matters is what you're after: if you want that classic dill pickle flavor, you probably want flowering dill and dill seed. They carry that strong, distinctive flavor that fresh fronds don't quite bring—though fresh fronds do bring a nice, very different flavor of their own. Mature dill with the flower heads is often sold as 'dill heads' or 'pickling dill.' If you only have fresh fronds, use a generous amount and add some dill seed to get closer to that classic taste.
How do you keep fresh dill from wilting?
Honestly, this is one of those things that can tip into fussy, so rule one: buy fresh dill. Straight out of the field, it'll usually keep about three weeks in a plastic bag in the fridge with no fuss at all. If what you've got is older or from the grocery store, you can stretch it: stand it in a jar with an inch of water, cover loosely with a plastic bag, and refrigerate. The important part here is changing that water every couple of days—it's the bacteria in the water that ultimately turns your herbs, just like cut flowers. Leave the water sitting and you'll probably shorten your dill's life, not lengthen it. Wrapping it loosely in a damp paper towel inside a bag works too. But buy fresh and you solve most of the problem before it starts.
What's the difference between dill and fennel?
They definitely look similar, and that's because they're botanically cousins—both in the Apiaceae family, the same family as carrots and parsley. But being related doesn't make them taste alike: the flavors of dill and fennel are about as different from each other as carrots and parsley are. Both bring light, herbaceous notes and work in similar kinds of dishes, but the flavors themselves are very different. Dill is the classic flavor you know from pickles and fresh Mediterranean yogurt sauces, while fennel leans toward anise or black licorice. So: very different flavors, but they shine in a lot of the same bright, fresh, summer-forward applications.
Why do my pickles turn cloudy?
It helps to know there are broadly two ways to make pickles, and both come down to getting acid into the cucumbers. In a quick or vinegar pickle, you add the acid directly. In a fermented pickle, you add salt instead, which encourages lactobacillus bacteria to grow and produce the acid for you. If your pickles were made the salt-fermentation way, cloudiness is often just the colony of bacteria that did that work—you'd expect to see it. It can also be harmless sediment from the salt or spices. The important thing to remember is that cloudy pickles generally aren't a problem. What you actually want to watch for is anything that smells off, or growth at the surface that looks fuzzy or moldy—that's your sign to toss the jar.
What can I substitute for dill?
In general, if it's the flavor of dill you want, nothing substitutes for dill but dill. If you're adding it to a dish, you can lean on things that already contain dill, but each brings baggage along with it. Pickle juice will give you some of that dill flavor, but also a mix of other herbs and a big hit of acidity. Ranch dressing powder is dill-forward, but it comes loaded with onion, garlic, and parsley too. If you're making something like pickles and just need an herb in that role, there are plenty you can use instead: tarragon, fennel fronds, parsley, even caraway or celery leaf. They'll all taste different from dill, but still quite nice in their own right. There's a reason dill is so popular—it's a genuinely delicious, distinct flavor that nothing else really replicates.
Should I let dill flower?
If you want dill for cooking, harvest before it flowers—the fronds get less flavorful and more sparse once the plant bolts. But if you want dill for pickling or to collect seeds, let it flower. The flower heads are actually preferred for pickles and the seeds are useful as a spice.
Does dill lose flavor when cooked?
It does soften. Dill carries a lot of delicate aromatics, and heat drives a good amount of them off, so its flavor is at its brightest and strongest raw or added near the end of cooking. That said, plenty of great dishes cook dill on purpose—it mellows into something rounder rather than disappearing. If you want that fresh, punchy dill note, add some at the end or save a little to scatter on at serving. If you're cooking it into a braise or soup, just use a generous hand, since some of that aroma will cook out.