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Pairing

Dill + Basil

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 154 recipes, and they share 262 flavor molecules: the top 2% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikestrong
Cooked together154 recipes
Ranktop 2% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Dill Basil
80dill only 262shared 112basil only Dill · 342 Basil · 374
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do dill and basil go together?

Yes. 154 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 262 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 2% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

More than half of dill's flavor molecules (262 of 342) also occur in basil. Among the shared key aromas are 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise) and myristicin (spice, warm).

What each one brings

dill

Much the same character. It carries 80 molecules basil doesn't have.

basil

The herbal side. Herbal notes make up 17% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 14% for dill. It carries 112 molecules dill doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Fennel: the best fit for both, top 1% of pairs with dill, top 1% with basil.
  • Oregano: top 4% of pairs with dill, top 1% with basil.
  • Marjoram: top 3% of pairs with dill, top 1% with basil.
  • Parsley: top 1% of pairs with dill, top 1% with basil.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with dill and basil

Mostly mains: 17 of the 26 recipes with a course label are mains.

Apple Beet BorschtArtichokes with HerbsBacalao on Crisp SaladBaked Lamb ShanksBaked RatatouilleBarbecued Salmon

See recipes with both →

Can you swap one for the other?

Fairly well, for flavor. Each carries most of the other's flavor molecules (77% of dill's and 70% of basil's are shared). This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 262 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 80 only in dill and the 112 only in basil.

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Dill and basil questions

Do dill and basil go together?

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 154 recipes, and they share 262 flavor molecules: the top 2% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do dill and basil taste good together?

More than half of dill's flavor molecules (262 of 342) also occur in basil. Among the shared key aromas are 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise) and myristicin (spice, warm).

What goes with dill and basil?

Fennel is the best third ingredient: top 1% of pairs with dill and top 1% with basil. Oregano and marjoram also fit both.

What can you make with dill and basil?

Mostly mains: 17 of the 26 recipes with a course label are mains. Common dishes include Apple Beet Borscht, Artichokes with Herbs, Bacalao on Crisp Salad, Baked Lamb Shanks.

Can I use basil instead of dill?

Fairly well, for flavor. Each carries most of the other's flavor molecules (77% of dill's and 70% of basil's are shared). This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

1
2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

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
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Dill vs Basil. https://compkitchen.com/compare/dill-vs-basil. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_dill_vs_basil_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Dill vs Basil},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/dill-vs-basil},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.