Also: garden chervil, basket cabbage, soup cabbage

​

Description:

The real chervil , an annual plant , is grown as a crop. It is best known for its cultivated form, which is used as a soup herb and spice for vegetables or salads. Chervil has pinnate green leaves with serrated ends and small white flowers that are arranged in double umbels. The fruits , which disintegrate into two parts when ripe, are elongated, 4 to 10 mm long in the native species, and are narrowed into a 1 to 4 mm long beak. The whole plant is hairy with the exception of the fruit. The leaves and - rarely - the seeds are used.
 

Harvest time:

The flowering period extends from May to August. The leaves are harvested from 45 to 60 days after sowing until just before flowering. Chervil can be harvested from April, but the plants should not be allowed to bloom; If you cut off the flowers in good time, you will prevent the aroma from decreasing and encourage further leaf formation.
 

Offer forms:

Chervil is marketed either fresh, for example in herb pots and as a bundle, frozen or dried (the latter form, however, leads to a loss of flavor). You can get them frozen in small pieces or cut in an ice cube tray.

Ingredients:

-           0.03% essential oils

-           Glycoside: Apiin

-           Bitter substances

Taste and smell:                                                                                         

The whole plant has an aniseed odor. The essential oils are decisive for the taste. Chervil is very similar to parsley, but has a very delicate aniseed aroma and tastes slightly sweet.

​

Cooking and kitchen technical use:                                                           

Since chervil has a very fine aroma, it should either be used alone or with salt and pepper. It also goes well with other delicate herbs such as parsley or tarragon. Strongly spicy herbs such as rosemary, thyme or basil would be too dominant and would overwhelm the delicate taste of chervil.

​

Examples of suitable dishes

Broths and soups: consommé, herb soup, cauliflower, mushroom, chervil, potato and carrot soup

Meat: veal, lamb and pork in light sauces

Poultry: in fillings, fried chicken, fried turkey

Egg dishes: eggs in chervil sauce, scrambled eggs with herbs, omelets

Sauces: Frankfurt green sauce, chervil sauce, roasted veal, mushroom, fish and veal sauce

Vegetables: pea and carrot vegetables, cucumber, all spring vegetables

Salads: mushroom, cucumber, fennel, egg, veal, poultry salad, green asparagus salad

Other: Herbal quark, orange chervil butter, part of Fines Herbes, chervil vinegar, chervil remoulade