Dill + Watercress
A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 44 recipes, and they share 217 flavor molecules: the top 5% of all ingredient pairs.
Do dill and watercress go together?
Yes. 44 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 217 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 5% of every ingredient pair we score.
Why they work
Almost everything watercress carries, dill has too: 217 of watercress's 227 flavor molecules also occur in dill. Among the shared key aromas are coumarin (sweet, hay) and 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
What each one brings
dill
The herbal side. Herbal notes make up 14% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 6% for watercress. It carries 125 molecules watercress doesn't have.
watercress
The sulfurous side. Sulfurous notes make up 7% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 3% for dill. It carries 10 molecules dill doesn't have.
Add a third ingredient
- Sorrel: the best fit for both, top 2% of pairs with dill, top 1% with watercress.
- Horseradish: top 2% of pairs with dill, top 1% with watercress.
- Chervil: top 3% of pairs with dill, top 1% with watercress.
- Capers: top 2% of pairs with dill, top 1% with watercress.
Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.
Recipes with dill and watercress
Mostly mains: 2 of the 4 recipes with a course label are mains.
Can you swap one for the other?
Only partly. Almost all of watercress's flavor molecules (217 of 227) are also found in dill, but dill has 125 that watercress lacks. Watercress gives you part of dill's character without most of its herbal side. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.
All 217 shared molecules
See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 125 only in dill and the 10 only in watercress.
Dill and watercress questions
Do dill and watercress go together?
A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 44 recipes, and they share 217 flavor molecules: the top 5% of all ingredient pairs.
Why do dill and watercress taste good together?
Almost everything watercress carries, dill has too: 217 of watercress's 227 flavor molecules also occur in dill. Among the shared key aromas are coumarin (sweet, hay) and 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
What goes with dill and watercress?
Sorrel is the best third ingredient: top 2% of pairs with dill and top 1% with watercress. Horseradish and chervil also fit both.
What can you make with dill and watercress?
Mostly mains: 2 of the 4 recipes with a course label are mains. Common dishes include Awesome Beet Dip, Cypriot Village Salad, Friday Night Pot Roast, Patterned Soups.
Can I use watercress instead of dill?
Only partly. Almost all of watercress's flavor molecules (217 of 227) are also found in dill, but dill has 125 that watercress lacks. Watercress gives you part of dill's character without most of its herbal side. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.
Compare other ingredients
Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs
Cite this analysis
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Dill vs Watercress. https://compkitchen.com/compare/dill-vs-watercress. Accessed 2026-11-04.
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_dill_vs_watercress_2026,
title = {Compound similarity analysis: Dill vs Watercress},
author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/dill-vs-watercress},
note = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}
Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.