Culinary Herbs: Dill

Among the most versatile herbs, dill flavors a variety of dishes. Cooking with dill—and growing dill plants—is easy and fruitful.

 

 

Dill, a hardy annual, is native to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions. It grows smaller than common fennel, which it somewhat resembles both in appearance and in the flavor of the green parts.

 

In ancient times this culinary herb was grown in Palestine. It was well-known in Pliny's time and is often discussed by writers in the Middle Ages. According to American writings, dill has been grown in this country for more than 200 years and has become spontaneous in many places.

 

Ordinarily dill plants grow two to two and a half feet tall. The smooth, hollow, branching stems bear very threadlike leaves. In midsummer, compound umbels with numerous yellow flowers, whose small petals are rolled inward, emerge on the dill plant. Very flat, pungent, bitter seeds are freely produced and unless gathered early are sure to stock the garden with seedlings for the following year.

 

Under fair storage conditions, dill seeds continue viable for three years. They are rather light; a quart of them weighs about 11 ounces. An ounce is said to contain over 25,000 seeds.

Where dill has not already been grown seed may be sown in early spring, preferably in a warm sandy soil, where the plants are to remain. Any well-drained soil will do. The drills should be one foot apart, the seeds scattered thinly and covered very shallow. A bed 12-feet square should supply an abundance of seed for any ordinary family. To sow this area, a half ounce or less of seed is ample.

 

Some growers favor fall sowing, because they claim the seed is more likely to germinate than in the spring and also to produce better plants than spring-sown seed.

 

Growing dill requires that the plants must be kept free from weeds and the soil loose and open. When three or four weeks old the seedlings can be thinned to nine inches, or even a foot apart. As soon as the seed is ripe, shortly after midsummer, it must be gathered with the least possible shaking and handling, so as to prevent loss.

 

Stems should be cut and dried. A good place for this is on a large canvas sheet where a free circulation of air can be secured.

The French use dill for flavoring preserves, cakes and pastries. American palates find this use too strong. More often, seeds appear in soups, sauces and stews. The most popular use in America is, of course, in pickles, especially in preserving cucumbers. The young leaves of this culinary herb are also used in pickles, soups, sauces and salads.

 

 

Kains, M.G. (2007). Project Gutenberg eBook of Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation, Harvesting, Curing and Uses. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from the Project Gutenberg Web site: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21414/21414-h/21414-h.htm.