Casual, Carefree Dill

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Massed together in a border, dill plants lend a lacy look to the herbal landscape. Photograph by J. G. Strauch, Jr.

FOR MANY HERB GARDENERS, dill signals summer’s arrival. Its feathery fronds, so wispy and insubstantial through the vacillations of spring weather, now put on a bold display, growing at breathtaking speed and flushing into a tall, fernlike mass. Indeed, their carefree, lacy appearance is almost a metaphor for lazy, sun-baked days in the backyard. Perhaps that’s one reason dill assumes such prominence in summer foods. Can you imagine barbecues or picnics without dill-spiked potato salads, deviled eggs, or pickles?

Dill in the kitchen

Dill offers two variations on one flavor theme. The foliage, called dill weed, tastes crisp, fresh, and herbaceous like parsley but with added sweet-citrusy notes. The seeds, which develop later in the season, have a stronger flavor—more aromatic, minty, medicinal, and pungent.

The difference in flavor between the leaves and the seeds results from the differing composition of their essential oils. The seed oil, which constitutes 2 to 5 percent of the weight of the seeds, consists mainly of d-carvone and limonene, compounds that also dominate the oil—and thus the flavor—of caraway seeds. The two kinds of seeds are interchangeable in many recipes.

Dill weed contains roughly a third as much essential oil as the seeds, and its oil contains less of the rather strident carvone and limonene; these are replaced in part by the fresh and faintly minty alpha-phellandrene.

Dill weed is the perfect match for the foods we love when the temperature soars: grilled fish, vine-ripened tomatoes, blanched baby carrots, shellfish cocktails, bean salads, cucumbers in yogurt, guacamole, and chilled vegetable soups. Even zucchini, so welcome at its first appearance but so tiresome thereafter, retains its appeal when thin slices, quickly sautéed in olive oil, are dressed with snipped dill weed.

Though dill weed is native to the Mediterranean region, its admirers extend deep into the Middle East and north into Scandinavia. The dill-filled dishes of these regions offer some delicious uses of this herb. Iranians add it by the fistful to their classic sabzi polo (dilled pilaf) and serve dill weed and other fresh herbs with yogurt or fresh cheeses on hors d’oeuvre platters. The Scandinavians embellish pickled herring with dill, and it is essential for gravlax (salt-cured salmon). Russians relish dill with fish, wild mushrooms, beets, sour cream, and even vodka. For a tasty Bloody Mary (or Virgin Mary if you omit the vodka), muddle a sprig of dill weed in a glass with tomato juice, add vodka and ice, and serve.

Don’t rule out dill weed when the air turns nippy; the fresh-cut herb is available year-round in supermarkets. Try it with hearty barley pilaf, stuffed cabbage or mushrooms, baked potatoes with sour cream, and cheese soufflés. Buckwheat blintzes and caviar with dilled sour cream are heavenly.