Chervil vs. Parsley: Close Relatives with Different Oils

Chervil and parsley are close relatives in the carrot family, Apiaceae, and they look enough alike that one can stand in for the other on a plate.¹² The difference is in the oil. Chervil’s is led by methyl chavicol (estragole), the compound that gives tarragon its anise note,³⁴⁵ and its flavor is light, parsley-like and faintly anise.¹³ Parsley tastes greener and slightly bitter,⁶ and its leaf oil carries compounds such as 1,3,8-p-menthatriene and myristicin instead.⁶ Put simply, chervil is the gentler herb, and parsley is the one with more presence.

Side by side

The two compound rows come from different studies of different samples, so they show which compounds lead each oil, not percentages to compare directly.

Flavor, and what’s behind it

Chervil. Britannica describes a delicate aroma and a taste reminiscent of anise.¹ PROSEA calls the flavor light and parsley-like with a hint of myrrh, and characterizes the oil by three constituents: undecane, methyl chavicol and methyl eugenol.³ In one analysis of oil from wild Turkish chervil, methyl chavicol made up 83.10%.⁴ The EU Scientific Committee on Food puts estragole, the same compound, at 60–75% of tarragon oil.⁵ So chervil and tarragon share their lead compound; no source we found measures how much of chervil’s anise note comes from it.

Parsley. Britannica calls parsley’s flavor mildly aromatic.² PROSEA describes the herb oil’s flavor as warm but slightly burning and bitter, and says flat-leaved parsley is stronger flavored than curly.⁶ The oil differs by type: in PROSEA’s figures for German-grown leaves, both types carried about 20% 1,3,8-p-menthatriene, but curly parsley’s oil had 32% myristicin against 9.1% in flat-leaved, and flat-leaved had more limonene (18% against 14%).⁶

In the cook’s terms, parsley tastes green and fresh with a light bitterness, and chervil tastes like a softer, sweeter parsley with a whisper of tarragon. That is our description, but it follows the chemistry.

How they look

Chervil’s leaves are lacy and finely divided, and the lower blades are triangular in outline.¹³ Parsley’s are deep green and tender, either flat or deeply frilled.² Flat-leaf parsley is the one more easily confused with chervil, though chervil’s leaflets are smaller and more delicate; that comparison is ours. No source we found describes chervil’s leaf color, so we can’t confirm the common claim that it is paler.

How each is used

Chervil. Britannica lists fish, salads, soups, eggs, meat dishes and stuffings for poultry and fish.¹ PROSEA adds casseroles and sauces, and singles out eggs, particularly omelets.³ By common practice it is added raw or at the very end, and often in generous amounts. See chervil uses and cooking with chervil.

Parsley. Britannica lists fish, meats, soups, sauces and salads, and notes that the ancient Greeks and Romans used the leaves as a flavoring and garnish.² By common practice it is the main herb in tabbouleh, chimichurri, gremolata and salsa verde. LSU AgCenter groups it with the delicate herbs best added in the last minute or two of cooking.¹¹

Together. Both belong to the French fines herbes, which commonly combine parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, though the mix varies.⁹ See fines herbes.

Two widely repeated claims don’t hold up in the sources we checked. We found no source that places chervil in herbes de Provence, and none that calls chervil “French parsley”; PROSEA gives its English names as chervil and garden chervil.³

Finding them. PROSEA calls chervil of minor importance in trade, though it is now grown in all parts of the world.³ Parsley is a much bigger crop: PROSEA reports, without a date, that it accounts for over half the area planted with culinary herbs in the United Kingdom.⁶

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, with a change in flavor. Each herb’s substitute page ranks the other near the top.

Chervil for parsley. The Spice House and Healthline both describe chervil as closely related to parsley but milder.¹⁶¹² As a garnish it works almost unnoticed. In a parsley-led dish such as tabbouleh, you’ll taste the difference; that is our judgment.

Parsley for chervil. Parsley gives the green body but not chervil’s anise. Tasting Table’s Sylvia Tomczak says the usual approximation is equal amounts of parsley and tarragon.¹³ Because tarragon is assertive, we start with about half the chervil quantity of the mix and make up the rest with parsley. Details are on the chervil substitutes and parsley substitutes pages.

Safety

Chervil. PROSEA notes that chervil is generally recognized as safe in the United States (GRAS 2279), and that methyl chavicol and methyl eugenol are carcinogenic in rats.³ The EU Scientific Committee on Food concluded in 2001 that estragole is genotoxic and carcinogenic, mainly on studies in which mice were given it orally, and recommended reducing exposure.⁵ It gave no figure for chervil used as a kitchen herb.

Parsley. MedlinePlus lists parsley among foods that can change how the blood thinner warfarin works, and advises not avoiding them but keeping the amount small and steady from day to day.¹⁰ Britannica warns that parsley seed oil, or large amounts of other parsley preparations, can cause potentially lethal reactions;² culinary amounts of the leaf are not the concern. See the parsley profile.

What isn’t known

• No study compares chervil and parsley directly.
• Chervil’s oil figures come from one wild Turkish population, read from an abstract.⁴ No published figure gives the oil content of fresh chervil.
• No source publishes a ratio for a straight chervil-parsley swap; only Tasting Table’s blend proportion is attributable.
• No source describes chervil’s leaf color or compares the two herbs’ prices.
• A widely repeated claim says chervil holds its flavor through long cooking better than parsley; no source we found supports it.

Related

• Chervil and parsley, the full profiles
• Chervil substitutes and parsley substitutes
• Chervil vs. cilantro and cilantro vs. parsley
• Italian parsley vs. curly parsley and fresh vs. dried parsley
• Fines herbes and tarragon