Dill vs. Parsley

This seems to be the week for unreasonable rants. The response I’ve gotten thus far to my tirade that mint chocolate chip ice cream should be white and pumpkin flavored things shouldn’t appear until October is a resounding “Who cares?”

It’s true, a bunch of you did weigh in on the green vs. white mint chip debate. And I really appreciated hearing more voices on the subject.

The answer, of course, to the above question is, “I care.” I do. Perhaps I spend too much time thinking about food. Heck, who am I kidding. I absolutely spend too much time thinking about food. Take fresh herbs for example. There is no reason to pit them against each other and suggest that parsley is better than dill. Each has its strength and role in the kitchen.

But parsley is totally better than dill. And dill, actually, is kinda disgusting.

Don’t get me wrong. In the right hands dill can be used to tremendous effect. ADS uses it in his Jewish grandmother’s chicken soup recipe. It’s the best chicken soup I’ve ever had. A little bit of dill in a pickle brine can be fine. But even there it can be overpowering.

A few weeks ago, I got to bring home a handful of dill from the CSA. To keep it fresh, we put the stems in a cup of water and covered the leaves with a plastic bag. Do you know what it did to thank us?

The dill stank up both the refrigerator and the freezer.

I’m not kidding. Even the ice cubes, which we make sure to cycle out of the freezer every couple of days, were redolent of dill for weeks after we tossed the herbs. I cannot tell you how many cocktails it ruined. The lingering funk of dill was so overpowering, that it drove me to buy boxes and boxes of baking soda in an attempt to rid our home of its aroma.

Parsley also happens to do a great job of brightening up a chicken soup. I’m not quite sure how it works with pickles, but parsley is at the core of a couple great raw sauces for grilled meats and vegetables. Of course there is chimichurri, but don’t forget the Italian salsa verde with all the gravitas that anchovies and capers bring to bear on this leafy herb. There is even the delightfully simple French persillade. If only I could get the kids to accept little bits of green on their food, I’d toss things in persillade all spring and summer long.

Just yesterday I was back at the CSA pickup. This week we were given the opportunity to take both a small handful of parsley and a small handful of dill. And even though I had not used up the parsley from last week’s pickup, I still went for another handful of the stuff.

But the dill, I could barely even bring myself to touch.

There is a basket at the CSA pickup for those items people don’t want to bring home with them. So I did grab my small handful of dill and placed it in the basket. But I wish I hadn’t. My hand smelled of the stuff for the rest of the day.

Seriously, who loves dill? Probably the same people who drink pumpkin beer in August and like their mint chip ice cream to be artificially green.