Dill: Leaf and Seed, the Compounds Behind Each, and How to Cook With It

Dill is the rare herb you buy two ways: the feathery leaf, sold as dill or dill weed, and the dried fruit, sold as dill seed. Both come from Anethum graveolens, an annual in the carrot and parsley family, but they taste different because their oils are made of different compounds. The leaf comes across fresh and grassy, while the seed is warmer and closer to caraway. And for a plant this familiar, the sources still can’t agree on where it’s native.

At a glance

What dill is

Dill is an upright, blue-green, hairless annual that PROSEA records at up to 1.5 m tall.³ Its leaves split into many thread-like segments and wrap the stalk at their base, and its small yellow flowers sit in flat-topped umbels. What the trade calls a seed is really a small dry fruit. Britannica describes it as broadly oval, about 3.5 mm long and light brown, with three ridges along the back and two wing-like ridges on the sides; PROSEA gives a range of 2.5–6 mm.³²

Indian dill

Dill grown in India belongs to a different cultivar group from European and American dill, and has often been treated as a separate species, Anethum sowa. Its seed oil has less carvone and contains dillapiole, which European dill lacks; PROSEA lists one Indian seed oil sample at 20.7% dillapiole. The Indian type is the main one in Southeast Asia.³

Named selections

PROSEA says there are no officially released dill cultivars, only seed companies’ own selections. Among herb selections it names Dukat, Superdukat, Mammut and Pikant from Scandinavia, Mammoth from the United States, and several German and Hungarian lines, and says there are none bred specifically for seed.³ We couldn’t trace claims about “Bouquet” and “Fernleaf” dill, or that Superdukat is a hybrid with unusually high oil.

Flavor and aroma

Dill’s flavor is warm and slightly sharp, somewhat like caraway, with a pleasant aromatic smell but a slightly bitter and pungent taste. The leaf comes across fresh, grassy and faintly anise-like, best raw or barely warmed. The seed is warmer, earthier and closer to caraway.

The compounds

Leaf and seed oils differ, which is the chemical reason they aren’t interchangeable:

These figures come from the literature PROSEA summarizes, not from fresh leaves bought at a store. The “up to” values are maximums, so don’t read them as typical.

Origin and history

Sources don’t agree on where dill is native:

Kew lists dill as introduced across much of Europe, Asia and the Americas. The leaves and fruits have been used as a culinary and medicinal herb since ancient times.

The English word goes back through Middle English dille to Old English dile, which meant dill or anise. It’s a Germanic word of unknown origin. The popular story that it comes from an Old Norse dilla, “to lull,” isn’t supported by that source. “Dill pickle” is recorded from 1899.⁴

How dill is used

• Leaves. Fresh or dried chopped leaves and young flower heads go into soups, salads and sauces, along with fish and sandwich fillings. Dill is especially popular in eastern European and Scandinavian cooking.
• Pickles. Flower heads and ripe fruits flavor pickled cucumbers and onions, vinegar, sauces, pastries and bread. Pickles are the classic use.
• India. Dill fruits go into some curry powders.

Dill also turns up in potato salad, yogurt and sour cream sauces, gravlax and borscht, and goes well with lemon, garlic, parsley and chives. See cooking with dill and pickling spice.

Technique

LSU AgCenter lists dill leaves among the delicate herbs to add at the end of cooking, since long heat costs flavor and aroma, and puts dill seeds with the sturdier herbs that can go in during the last 20 minutes. Its general fresh-to-dried rule is one tablespoon of finely cut fresh herbs to one teaspoon of crumbled dried, so roughly a third as much dried. That’s a guide for herbs in general, not a dill-specific measurement.⁵ See fresh dill vs. dried dill and dill seed vs. dill weed.

For home canning, the National Center for Home Food Preservation says to use only recipes with tested proportions and not to change the vinegar, food or water proportions.⁶ Dill is just flavoring, but the brine around it isn’t something to improvise. If a dish has gone over, see too much dill.

Buying and quality

PROSEA says a dried dill product should contain at least 0.15% essential oil, and that leaving the cut herb to dry too long in the field loses a lot of oil, especially the more volatile terpenes. It also notes that dill herb oil is often adulterated with d-limonene.³ When you’re shopping, look for fresh dill that’s bright green and fragrant, with no yellowing or slimy fronds.

Storage

PROSEA describes commercial storage of fresh dill in sealed polythene bags at 6–12 °C, and notes that you can chop fresh dill and freeze it with water in ice cube trays.³ Standing the stems in a glass of water in the fridge is a common trick, though we found no test of it. Dried dill and dill seed keep best airtight and away from light and heat. We found no published shelf-life figure. See how to store dill.

Health and safety

Britannica notes that dill seed and seed oil have carminative properties and have been used for flatulent colic, and PROSEA says dill water, made from the seed oil, is used medicinally for digestive complaints, especially in children.³² Those describe traditional use, not evidence from human trials. NCCIH has no fact sheet on dill, and we didn’t find a systematic review of human studies. We make no claim that dill treats or prevents anything.

Dill has “generally recognized as safe” status in the United States, according to PROSEA.³ We couldn’t reach USDA FoodData Central, so we don’t give nutrient figures for dill here.

Substitutes and comparisons

Fennel fronds are the closest match for dill leaf, and caraway for dill seed (which fits the caraway comparison above). See dill substitutes for the full list.

• Fennel vs. dill
• Tarragon vs. dill
• Dill seed vs. dill weed
• Caraway seeds, fennel seed, cumin