If dill relish has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 39 recipes to try it in.

What is dill relish?

Dill relish is finely chopped dill pickles in a tart, briny base of vinegar and dill, used as a condiment and a recipe ingredient.

It is essentially a dill pickle minced down to a spoonable texture, so it carries the same sour, garlicky, herb-forward punch in a form you can fold into a sauce.

The key thing to know is that dill relish is savory and tart, not sweet. That single distinction separates it from sweet pickle relish, the bright-green sugary version. The two are not interchangeable without changing how a dish tastes.

It earns its keep in cold, creamy mixtures, where a spoonful cuts through richness and wakes up bland salads and sauces.

How to Use Dill Relish

The most famous use is tartar sauce: stir dill relish into mayonnaise with a little lemon and you have the classic sauce for fried fish, as alongside a Broiled Flounder or a Grilled Salmon Sandwich.

It is just as at home in cold salads. A spoonful folded into Meeting House Potato Salad or Favorite Picnic Potato Salad adds tang and crunch that plain mayonnaise cannot, and the same trick lifts egg salad and tuna salad, as in Tuna Salad (Justin Wilson's).

Because it is already chopped and seasoned, relish is a shortcut. You get the flavor of a diced pickle plus its brine in one scoop, with no cutting board.

Drain it first if your dish is already wet. The brine that keeps relish punchy will thin out a potato salad or loosen a burger sauce, so press out the excess liquid before you fold it in.

Beyond sauces and salads, dill relish sharpens deviled eggs, sloppy joes like Sloppy Bbq Joes, and a loaded burger such as a Double Decker Burgers.

Dill Versus Sweet Relish, and Pairing

The split between dill and sweet relish comes down to the cure. Dill relish is made from cucumbers brined with vinegar, salt, and dill, so it stays sour and savory. Sweet relish adds a lot of sugar, which makes it candy-bright and one-note next to the dill style.

Use dill where you want tang to cut fat, and sweet where you want a sugary contrast, as on a hot dog.

Swapping one for the other is the most common mistake. A sweet relish in tartar sauce turns it cloying, and a dill relish on a Chicago dog tastes flat.

Dill relish pairs naturally with the foods it grew up beside: fatty fish and mayonnaise-based salads, plus the smoked meats of a deli counter. Its acid is the whole point, so add it to taste at the end and let it sharpen rather than dominate.

Substitutes

The quickest stand-in is a dill pickle chopped fine, plus a splash of its brine to mimic the relish's liquid. This is genuinely the same thing, just made by hand.

Cornichons or chopped gherkins work too, finely minced, though they run a touch sweeter or more sour depending on the brand, so taste as you go.

In a real pinch, capers bring the briny, acidic note without the cucumber, useful in a tartar sauce or remoulade where you mainly want the tang.

Avoid reaching for sweet relish as a one-for-one swap. If it is all you have, cut any other sugar in the recipe and add a little extra vinegar or lemon to pull it back toward savory.

Buying and Storing

Most jarred dill relish lives near the pickles and condiments, sometimes labeled dill pickle relish. Read the label, since some so-called dill relishes still carry added sugar; for true tartness, look for one where vinegar and dill lead the ingredient list.

Unopened, a jar keeps for a year or more in the pantry thanks to its vinegar and salt. Once opened, refrigerate it and use it within about a month or two for the brightest flavor, though the acidity keeps it safe longer.

Always use a clean spoon, never one that has touched mayonnaise or another food, since introduced bacteria and crumbs are what spoil an otherwise long-lived jar. Keep the relish submerged in its brine and the jar sealed between uses.

Throw the jar out if the relish darkens and turns soft, or smells off rather than sharp. A healthy jar smells sharply of vinegar and dill and the pieces stay firm and pale green.

Quick facts

Where to find dill relish: Dill relish is usually found in the condiments section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

莳萝津津乐道

British (UK) term

Dill relish

en français

aneth goût

en español

eneldo fruición

Recipes using dill relish

There are 39 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 39 recipes