Ingredient

Dill

Dill is one of the most fragile herbs there is. Its aroma — grassy, anise-like, faintly citrus — disappears within a minute of contact with heat, so it belongs at the very end or not in the pan at all. Its seed is a separate spice with a warmer, more caraway-like character.

Why timing matters more than with any other herb

Dill's characteristic aroma comes largely from carvone and limonene, held in a very fine, soft leaf with almost no structure to protect them. It has none of the waxy toughness of thyme or rosemary.

Put dill into a simmering pan and the aroma is gone before the dish reaches the table. What remains is a faint grassiness and some green flecks.

So it is stirred in off the heat, scattered over at the table, or used raw. The one exception is a long pickle or a cure, where it is infusing rather than cooking and there is time for the compounds to migrate into the liquid.

Weed and seed

Dill weed

The feathery leaf. Delicate, anise-grassy, heat-sensitive. What "dill" usually means.

Dill seed

Warmer, sharper, closer to caraway. A spice used in pickling brines, breads and some Indian cooking.

Dill flower heads

Used whole in pickling jars, where they carry both leaf and seed character.

Dried dill weed

Much weaker than fresh but not useless. Reasonable in a dip or a dressing; poor as a finishing herb.

Frozen dill

Better than dried. Chop and freeze it in oil in an ice-cube tray.

Where dill belongs

• With cured or smoked fish — gravlax is dill and salmon and little else, and smoked salmon wants it too.
• With potatoes, particularly new potatoes with butter, which is the Scandinavian and Eastern European default.
• With cucumber, in a salad, a pickle or a tzatziki-style yoghurt sauce.
• In pickling brines, where flower heads and seed both go in.
• With soured cream or yoghurt, as a sauce for fish, beetroot or beef stroganoff.
• In a Persian or Georgian rice dish, in quantity, stirred through at the end.
• With eggs, in an omelette or scrambled, added off the heat.

Handling it

1. Buy it looking perky. Dill wilts faster than any other herb and a limp bunch does not recover.
2. Stand it in water in the fridge, loosely bagged, and use it within a few days.
3. Pick the feathery fronds off the thicker stems. The upper stems are tender enough to use; the thick lower ones are not.
4. Do not chop it finely. Dill is delicate and a rough chop or a few snips with scissors is plenty.
5. Add it off the heat, at the last possible moment.
6. For a glut, chop it and freeze it in an ice-cube tray with a little oil or water. It keeps its character far better than drying.

Common questions