Hyssop Substitutes for Savory Dishes, Desserts and Za’atar Recipes

For savory cooking, rosemary is your closest stand-in for hyssop, with sage and oregano behind it. For sweets, reach for culinary lavender or mint. No single herb copies hyssop, because it’s strongly aromatic and a bit bitter at the same time. Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis, which Kew now lists as Dracocephalum officinale) is a woody mint-family herb (Lamiaceae),¹ and Britannica lists its uses as flavoring meats, fish, vegetables, salads, sweets and liqueurs such as absinthe.² Before you pick a swap, though, make sure your recipe means this hyssop at all.

First, which hyssop does your recipe mean?

Old Dominion University’s Plants of the Bible site notes that Origanum syriacum, called Syrian hyssop in English, is known in Arabic as za’atar.³ So a Middle Eastern recipe that calls for hyssop may mean that plant. It’s a different species from garden hyssop. Kew lists it as a mint-family subshrub of the eastern Mediterranean and Arabian Peninsula, in the same genus as oregano.⁴ If that’s what your recipe means, especially in a spice blend, oregano or a za’atar blend is the closer swap, not the herbs below. See za’atar substitutes and oregano.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one and do not average them.
• Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a cautious starting point, and say so.

We couldn’t find a published ratio for replacing hyssop with any other herb. Every herb-for-herb amount here is a cautious starting point, not a measured equivalent.

What hyssop tastes like, and what’s in it

The Wolters Kluwer monograph published on Drugs.com says hyssop’s essential oil is mostly pinocamphone, isopinocamphone, alpha- and beta-pinene and camphene,⁵ and a 2011 review names pinocamphone, isopinocamphone and beta-pinene among the principal components.⁶ It smells somewhere between mint, sage and rosemary, with a floral note and a bitter finish.

None of the usual substitutes contains pinocamphone. Rosemary comes closest chemically, through the pinenes.

If hyssop is a savory seasoning

1. Rosemary

Kew now puts rosemary in the sage genus, as Salvia rosmarinus,⁷ which makes it a mint-family plant too.⁸ In one study of rosemary oils, alpha-pinene made up 13.5 to 37.7 percent and 1,8-cineole 16.1 to 29.3 percent.⁹ PROSEA credits alpha-pinene for rosemary’s warm, piny scent.¹⁰ That pine note is the piece of hyssop’s smell rosemary can cover. It doesn’t have hyssop’s floral side.

Ratio: We found no published ratio. Start with about half as much rosemary as hyssop, chopped fine, and taste. Rosemary is strong and its needles are tough, so it suits long-cooked dishes better than salads.

2. Sage

Sage (Salvia officinalis) is also in the mint family.⁸ PROSEA credits its strong, distinctive smell to the thujones,¹¹ which aren’t among hyssop’s main compounds. It matches hyssop’s bitter, resinous strength more than its particular smell.

Ratio: We found no published ratio. Start with about half as much sage as hyssop and taste. Sage is best in cooked dishes with fatty meats or beans, and less good in salads or sweets.

3. Oregano

Oregano is a mint-family herb whose oil contains thymol and carvacrol.¹² It can stand in for hyssop’s pungency in savory cooking, but not its smell.

Ratio: We found no published ratio. Start with about half as much and taste.

If hyssop is flavoring something sweet

Britannica lists sweets among hyssop’s uses,² and the Wolters Kluwer monograph mentions puddings and candies.⁵

1. Culinary lavender

Lavender is another mint-family genus.¹³ How it tastes depends on the species. The Herb Society of America calls true lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) the most delightful species to cook with, and warns that lavandin and Spanish lavender are high in cineole and camphor.¹⁴ In one study of L. angustifolia oils, linalool and linalyl acetate led every sample.¹⁵ Lavender gives you hyssop’s floral side, but none of its pine or bitterness. Britannica notes lavender is sometimes used to flavor drinks and sweets.¹³

Ratio: We found no published ratio. Start with about half as much lavender as hyssop and add more as you go, which is the Herb Society’s advice for lavender in general.¹⁴ Buy L. angustifolia sold for cooking.

2. Mint

Mint is the easiest one to find. Its chemistry is different: peppermint oil is led by menthol and menthone, and spearmint is rich in carvone.¹⁶ You get a cool, fresh note but none of hyssop’s bitterness or pine.

Ratio: We found no published ratio. Mint is milder than hyssop, so start with an equal amount and add more to taste.

Dried hyssop for fresh

Got dried hyssop and a recipe that wants fresh? The general fresh-to-dried herb conversion works.

Ratio (Computed): NDSU Extension equates 1 tablespoon of finely cut fresh herbs with 1 teaspoon of dried.¹⁷ In America’s Test Kitchen’s tests, 1 part dried herb to 3 parts fresh came closest to equal flavor strength.¹⁸ The same tests found the hardy dried herbs (thyme, rosemary and sage) held up reasonably well in dishes cooked fairly long, more than 20 minutes, with a good amount of liquid.¹⁸ Neither source tested hyssop itself.

A note on hyssop oil

Hyssop oil is no substitute for the herb. The Wolters Kluwer monograph reports that the oil has caused convulsions in rats, links its neurotoxicity to pinocamphone and isopinocamphone, and notes case reports of seizures in adults and children.⁵ Those findings are about the concentrated oil, not leaves used as a seasoning.

What isn’t known

• There’s no published ratio for any hyssop substitute. Every herb-for-herb amount here is a starting point.
• You’ll sometimes read that hyssop smells like lemon and lavender combined. We found no source for that.
• No source compares how strong hyssop is next to lavender, sage, rosemary or mint.

Related

• Hyssop, cooking with hyssop and hyssop vs. lavender
• Rosemary, sage, sage substitutes and rosemary vs. sage
• Lavender, lavender substitutes and sage vs. lavender
• Mint, mint substitutes and oregano vs. mint
• Za’atar and za’atar substitutes