What to use instead of chervil
Quick answer
The closest option is Parsley with Tarragon, rated acceptable. A reconstruction, and the reason it needs two ingredients is that chervil does two things: it supplies fine green leaf and a delicate anise, and no single available herb does both. Parsley gives the leaf and the freshness and no anise at all; a very little tarragon gives the anise and, at more than a very little, obliterates the delicacy the substitution was trying to preserve.
It will not do for: Kerbelsuppe and the Low Countries chervil soups, where the herb is the dish; Fine sprig garnish, since parsley leaf is the wrong shape.
All recorded options
Ranked by suitability. Ratios are given only where they are defensible, and always with their basis — by weight or by volume — because spice densities differ.
Use: ~1× by volume — Volume for volume in flat-leaf parsley with about a fifth as much tarragon added. The tarragon is the part to be careful with — it is several times stronger than chervil and will take over.
A reconstruction, and the reason it needs two ingredients is that chervil does two things: it supplies fine green leaf and a delicate anise, and no single available herb does both. Parsley gives the leaf and the freshness and no anise at all; a very little tarragon gives the anise and, at more than a very little, obliterates the delicacy the substitution was trying to preserve.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | close | n/a |
Works for
- Fines herbes made outside France, which is how most fines herbes is made
- Egg dishes and light sauces
- Anywhere chervil was a component rather than the subject
Does not work for
- Kerbelsuppe and the Low Countries chervil soups, where the herb is the dish
- Fine sprig garnish, since parsley leaf is the wrong shape
Why there is no second option: Nothing else is close, and the profile explains why at length. Chervil's combination of a very fine leaf and a delicate estragole anise has no analogue: parsley supplies the leaf and none of the anise, tarragon supplies the anise several times too strongly, and fennel fronds — considered as the other fine anise-scented leaf — are coarser and sweeter and belong to a different set of dishes. Dried chervil was considered and is not a substitute for fresh in any useful sense; the record for that form says so. Where chervil is the subject of the dish rather than a component, as in a Low Countries kervelsoep, there is no substitution and the honest advice is to grow it. Editorial judgement.
Flat-leaf rather than curly parsley. Curly is coarser and more assertive and moves the result further away.
Where chervil stands in for something else
The reverse view of the same graph.
- Instead of Tarragon — good