Herb
Chervil
Chervil is a delicate, ferny herb with mild anise-parsley flavour, essential to French fines herbes and spring cookery. Best used raw or barely warmed, it wilts and loses aroma under high heat. Young leaves garnish eggs, fish, salads, and butter sauces. Compared with parsley or tarragon, chervil is softer and more fleeting, so it is rarely dried successfully for fine cooking.
Also known as: Cerfeuil, Kerbel
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History
Chervil entered Roman and later European gardens as a mild spring aromatic.
French cuisine placed chervil among the classic fines herbes with parsley, chives, and tarragon.
Paris market gardens specialised in tender chervil for restaurant and household spring menus.
Chervil remained a specialty herb outside France, stocked by fine greengrocers and herb farms.