Dill seed

One US cup of dill seed weighs between 90.7 and 105.6 grams (3.2 to 3.7 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 105.6 grams (3.7 ounces) as USDA weighs a tablespoon of whole seed. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called dill seeds, whole dill seed, dill seed whole, dillseed.

Spice seeds compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

A teaspoon of dill seed weighs about 2.2 g, and a cup between 91 and 106 g (3.2 to 3.7 oz). USDA and the Shamrock Foodservice spice table agree within 1%; two bulk sellers count about 16% lighter, so the page shows the range and recommends USDA's figure.

Dill seed is the dried fruit of the dill plant, Anethum graveolens, the same plant whose feathery leaves are sold as dill weed. The seeds are small, flat, oval and ribbed, light brown with a pale rim, and they taste of caraway and dill together. They are the classic flavour of dill pickles, and they go into rye and potato breads, sauerkraut and braised cabbage, potato salad, soups, and Scandinavian and Eastern European cooking.

USDA's record for dill seed weighs a teaspoon at 2.1 g and a tablespoon at 6.6 g. The tablespoon, the more precise of the two, is 105.6 g a cup. The Shamrock Foodservice spice table gives 13 teaspoons of dill seed to the ounce of weight, 104.7 g a cup. Herbco and Frontier Co-op, two bulk sellers, both count 5 cups of whole dill seed to the pound, 90.7 g a cup, and Frontier's organic dill seed the same. The spread is 16%, past the 10% this site allows, so the page shows the range and recommends USDA's 2.2 g teaspoon. Dill seed sits in this site's milled category with the other whole seeds, which allows the same 10% as spices.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no dill seed row.

Dill seed and dried dill weed are not interchangeable by weight or by flavour. A teaspoon of the dried leaves weighs about 1 g on this site, less than half as much as the seed, and the seed is sharper and more like caraway.

The physical check: dill seed is light for a seed because of its shape. Each seed is a flat, thin half-fruit with a papery edge, and flat pieces stack loosely in a spoon, leaving gaps. Its relatives in the parsley family weigh much the same on this site: celery seed, smaller and plumper, 2.2 g a teaspoon, and fennel and cumin seeds, longer and ridged, 1.9 to 2.3 g. The bulk sellers' lighter figure is still within that family. Their counts are also rounded to the half cup in a pound, so 5 cups could be anything from 4.75 to 5.25, 86 to 95 g a cup.

Practical guidance: use 2.2 g per teaspoon of dill seed, 6.6 g per tablespoon and about 106 g per cup. Pickle recipes measure dill seed by the teaspoon per jar, so the difference between sources comes to a few tenths of a gram. Toast the seeds in a dry pan for a minute to bring out their flavour, and crack them in a mortar when a bread dough or dressing should carry the flavour throughout. Whole seeds keep their aroma far longer than ground ones.