Dried tarragon

One US cup of dried tarragon weighs between 28.8 and 41.2 grams (1 to 1.5 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 28.8 grams (1 ounces) as USDA weighs a tablespoon of dried leaves. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called tarragon, tarragon leaves, dried tarragon leaves, French tarragon, estragon.

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

A teaspoon of dried tarragon weighs about 0.6 g, and a cup between 29 and 41 g (1 to 1.5 oz). USDA and two bulk sellers agree within 5%; a foodservice table and one organic tarragon run up to 43% heavier, so the page shows the range and recommends USDA's figure.

Dried tarragon is the dried leaf of French tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus, a herb with long, narrow leaves and a sweet, anise-like flavour. It is the herb of béarnaise sauce and one of the French fines herbes with parsley, chervil and chives, and it goes into chicken and egg dishes, fish, creamy sauces, salad dressings and tarragon vinegar. Dried tarragon is milder than fresh, and jars hold short cut pieces of leaf.

USDA's record for dried tarragon weighs a teaspoon of leaves at 0.6 g and a tablespoon at 1.8 g, 28.8 g a cup. Herbco and Frontier Co-op, two bulk sellers, both count 15 cups of cut and sifted tarragon to the pound, 30.2 g a cup. Those three agree within 5%. But Frontier's organic tarragon counts only 11 cups to the pound, 41.2 g, and the Shamrock Foodservice spice table gives 37 teaspoons of tarragon leaves to the ounce of weight, 36.8 g. The spread is 43%, past the 10% this site allows for spices, so the page shows the range and recommends USDA's 0.6 g teaspoon.

USDA also weighs ground tarragon, at 1.6 g a teaspoon and 4.8 g a tablespoon, 76.8 g a cup, nearly three times the leaves. No second source weighs ground tarragon, so it has no figure of its own here.

One label is listed without a figure. Morton & Bassett gives a quarter teaspoon of its tarragon as 0.5 g, which would be 2 g a teaspoon, three times every measurement of the leaves and more than USDA's ground tarragon. The same label's 14 servings come to 7 g against a net weight of 0.3 oz, 8.5 g, so the label does not agree with itself either.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no tarragon row.

The physical check: tarragon leaves are long and narrow, and cut and sifted they become short, flat strips that lie at every angle in the spoon and leave most of it air, as other leafy herbs on this site do: marjoram 0.6 g a teaspoon, basil 0.7 g, oregano 1 g. A spoonful of leaf pieces cannot weigh 2 g when the same leaf milled to a powder weighs 1.6 g. Neither the foodservice table nor Frontier says why its figure runs heavier; a finer cut packs tighter, and stems weigh more than leaves.

Practical guidance: use 0.6 g per teaspoon of dried tarragon, 1.8 g per tablespoon and about 29 g per cup, and 1.6 g per teaspoon of ground tarragon. When a recipe gives fresh tarragon, use about a third as much dried by volume. For béarnaise, add dried tarragon to the vinegar and shallot reduction so it has time to soften, and weigh it if you make the sauce in quantity.