What to use instead of dill
Quick answer
The closest option is Dill, rated acceptable. Dried dill keeps the grassiness and loses the cooling lift, which is a bigger loss than the ratio suggests. Freeze-dried dill — bright green rather than khaki — keeps considerably more and is worth the difference. Frozen fresh dill beats both.
It will not do for: Gravlax and cured fish, where fresh fronds are structural; Scandinavian potato dishes where dill is used by the handful; Any garnish.
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.
Dill
AcceptableUse: ~0.33× by volume — About a third the volume, and less if the jar is more than a few months old.
Dried dill keeps the grassiness and loses the cooling lift, which is a bigger loss than the ratio suggests. Freeze-dried dill — bright green rather than khaki — keeps considerably more and is worth the difference. Frozen fresh dill beats both.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | partial | n/a |
Works for
- Dips, dressings and dairy-based sauces
- Bread doughs
- Potato salads
Does not work for
- Gravlax and cured fish, where fresh fronds are structural
- Scandinavian potato dishes where dill is used by the handful
- Any garnish
Fennel seed
PoorClose relatives with a superficially similar look and a genuinely different flavour. Fennel is dominated by anethole and tastes of anise; dill leaf is dominated by phellandrene and dill ether and tastes of neither. Fennel fronds, where you can get them, are the better version of this swap and are still not dill. The seed is a poor stand-in for the leaf of any plant, including its own.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| different | partial | different | n/a |
Works for
- Oily fish, where anise and dill both work for reasons of their own
- Emergencies in a cucumber salad
Does not work for
- Gravlax, dill pickles and anything Scandinavian, where the herb is the identity
- Potato and soured cream dishes
- Persian rice dishes
No ratio, because none is defensible. The two plants are related and the flavours are not, and a number here would suggest otherwise.
Where dill stands in for something else
The reverse view of the same graph.