Tarragon: French vs. Russian, the Estragole Behind the Anise Note, and How to Use It

Buy tarragon seed and you won’t get the tarragon your recipe means. The name covers two quite different plants, French and Russian, and only French has the sweet anise scent that makes béarnaise sauce what it is. Russian is the one sold as seed, while French never sets viable seed and is grown from cuttings. Both are Artemisia dracunculus, a perennial in the daisy family and a relative of mugwort and wormwood. French tarragon’s oil is mostly estragole, which is also why the herb comes up in food safety discussions.

At a glance

French and Russian tarragon

On paper the two are the same species, but in the garden and the kitchen they act like different plants.

Here’s what that means for you. Tarragon seed sold on seed racks and in catalogs is Russian tarragon, a taller, coarser plant considered second-rate for cooking because it lacks French tarragon’s smell and flavor. True French tarragon is only available as plants.⁴ When a recipe says tarragon, it means French.

Flavor and aroma

The leaves, fresh or dried, have a sweet anise-like scent and a peculiar bittersweet flavor. The taste is often described as licorice or anise. It’s assertive stuff. A little goes a long way, and it can take over a delicate sauce.

The compounds

French tarragon oil is mostly estragole, also called methyl chavicol. The figures vary by sample and source, so we show them separately instead of merging them:

The 2011 review also shows how much tarragon oils differ by origin. Across the samples it collected, the main components included methyleugenol at up to 39%, elemicin at up to 57% and terpinolene at up to 25%, besides estragole.³ We found no source that tests whether estragole is what gives tarragon its anise character, so we call it the dominant compound, not the proven cause of the flavor.

Origin and history

Kew gives tarragon a very wide native range, across the temperate Northern Hemisphere and into tropical mountains, from Russia, Central Asia and China to western North America and Mexico. It lists France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain as places it was introduced, not native.¹ PROSEA says the origin isn’t known for certain, and it may be Siberia.² You’ll often read that tarragon is native specifically to western Asia and southern Russia, which is too narrow for either source.

How tarragon is used

• French cooking. Tarragon is an essential ingredient in béarnaise. It’s also one of the usual herbs in fines herbes, alongside parsley, chives and chervil, though the exact mix varies. See fines herbes.
• Chicken, eggs and seafood. The leaves are especially good with chicken, eggs and lobster.
• Vinegar. Tarragon vinegar is made by adding the herb to wine vinegar, and the oil also goes into canned pickles, vinegars and liqueurs. Tarragon also works in oils, marinades and salads.
• Drinks. A sweet nonalcoholic tarragon drink, Tarkhun, built on a tarragon syrup, is popular in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Estonia, Russia and Ukraine.³

You’ll also see tarragon credited in Iranian stews and pickles, Hungarian chicken soup and a Slovenian nut roll, but we couldn’t trace those to a source we could open, so we’ve left them out. For more ideas, see tarragon uses.

Fresh vs. dried

Use tarragon fresh whenever you can, because it loses its flavor quickly when the leaves are dried. See dried tarragon vs. fresh tarragon. Overdid it? See too much tarragon.

Ratio (Attributed): LSU AgCenter’s general rule for herbs is one tablespoon of finely cut fresh herbs to one teaspoon of crumbled dried. That’s a guide for herbs in general, not a tarragon measurement.⁶

Buying and quality

The big quality question is which tarragon you’re getting. Fresh tarragon that smells clearly of anise when you rub it is French. Leaves with little scent and a flat, grassy taste are probably Russian. To grow it, buy French tarragon as a plant, since seed will be Russian.

Trade figures are thin. PROSEA lists France (80–100 t), the United States (40–50 t) and Germany (10–80 t) among the major markets for annual tarragon consumption and puts world tarragon oil production at about 10 t a year, without saying what year those estimates are from.² We found no current statistics.

Storage

PROSEA recommends drying tarragon in shade or in dryers no hotter than 43 °C, storing commercial dried herb in well-closed containers, and keeping the oil in well-filled bottles away from light.² Get dried tarragon into sealed containers quickly. We found no published shelf-life figure. See how to store tarragon, how to dry tarragon and can you freeze tarragon.

Safety: estragole

Estragole is why tarragon comes up in food safety discussions. The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food concluded in 2001 that estragole has been shown to be genotoxic and carcinogenic, based mainly on studies where mice were dosed orally, and said it couldn’t set a safe exposure limit. It estimated average intake at 4.3 mg a day for consumers, from all sources, without separating herbs from flavorings.⁵

The 2011 review reads the same evidence differently. It judges the cancer risk to humans extremely small, while noting that the European Commission didn’t set a safe limit, and that water-based extracts contain very little estragole and methyleugenol.³ Neither source gives a safe or unsafe amount of tarragon leaf in cooking.

In the US, tarragon oil is on FDA’s list of essential oils generally recognized as safe for their intended use.⁷

Health claims

The 2011 review found that most reported effects of tarragon had been tested in rodents, with only one randomized, double-blind trial in humans (in healthy men), and called for more clinical research.³ We couldn’t find human evidence for claims that tarragon lowers blood sugar, treats insomnia, numbs toothache, or ranks among the most antioxidant-rich herbs. We don’t claim tarragon treats or prevents anything.

Substitutes and comparisons

Chervil and fennel fronds can stand in for some of tarragon’s anise note, and basil for some of its sweetness, but none matches it closely. See tarragon substitutes for the ranked list.

• Tarragon vs. dill
• Tarragon vs. rosemary
• Tarragon vs. thyme
• Chervil, fennel seed, anise seed