Spice Of The Week: Dill Weed

Are you a person who likes the spice taste of "Dill"? Some folks think that the only flavor a pickle should come in is Dill. Despite the name, dill weed isn’t a weed at all. Instead, it comes from the feathery leaves of a sturdy, delicate-looking annual.

Dill weed should be harvested at the height of its flavor, just as the flower buds are starting to form. The tiny yellow flower buds are picked right along with the crisp, green leaves, adding a pleasant, slightly lemony aroma that’s missing from dills harvested before flowering. Dill weed should be added toward the end of cooking or in recipes with low or no heat to retain its mild, sweet flavor. 

Dill (Anethum graveolens) is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae.  Dill grows up to 16–24 inches, with slender hollow stems and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves 3.9–7.9 in long. The ultimate leaf divisions are 0.039–0.079 in broad, slightly broader than the similar leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than 0.039 in broad, but harder in texture. The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels 0.79–3.54 inches diameter. The seeds are 0.16–0.20 in long and 0.039 in thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface.

Fresh and dried dill leaves (sometimes called "dill weed" to distinguish it from dill seed) are widely used as herbs in Europe and central Asia.

Like caraway, the fernlike leaves of dill are aromatic and are used to flavor many foods such as gravlax (cured salmon) and other fish dishes, borscht and other soups, as well as pickles (where the dill flower is sometimes used). Dill is best when used fresh as it loses its flavor rapidly if dried; however, freeze-dried dill leaves retain their flavor relatively well for a few months.

Dill seed, having a flavor similar to caraway but also resembling that of fresh or dried dill weed, is used as a spice. Dill oil is extracted from the leaves, stems and seeds of the plant. The oil from the seeds is distilled and used in the manufacturing of soaps. 
Dill is the eponymous ingredient in dill pickles: cucumbers preserved in salty brine and/or vinegar.

In central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and Finland, dill is a popular culinary herb used in the kitchen along with chives or parsley. Fresh, finely cut dill leaves are used as topping in soups, especially the hot red borsht and the cold borsht mixed with curds, kefir, yoghurt, or sour cream, which is served during hot summer weather and is called okroshka. It is also popular in summer to drink fermented milk (curds, kefir, yoghurt, or buttermilk) mixed with dill (and sometimes other herbs).

In the same way, prepared dill is used as a topping for boiled potatoes covered with fresh butter – especially in summer when there are so-called "new", or young, potatoes. The dill leaves can be mixed with butter, making a dill butter, which can serve the same purpose. Dill leaves mixed with tvorog form one of the traditional cheese spreads used for sandwiches. Fresh dill leaves are used all year round as an ingredient in salads, e.g., one made of lettuce, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, the way basil leaves are used in Italy and Greece.

Fun Fact: Dill weed has been cultivated since 3,000 BC. And its name is thought to come from the ancient Norse word “dilla,” meaning “to soothe or lull.”

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