Jam and Jellies

For other uses, see Jam (disambiguation).

Jam from berries

Jam is a type of fruit preserve made by boiling fruit with sugar to make an unfiltered jelly. Jam is often spread on bread and also as a culinary sweetener, for example in yogurt.

The use of cane sugar to make jam and jelly can be traced back to the 16th century when the Spanish came to the West Indies, where they preserved fruit, but the Greek technique of preseving quinces by boiling them in honey was included in the Roman cookery book associated with the name Apicius.

The proportion of sugar and fruit varies according to the type of fruit and its ripeness, but a rough starting point is equal weights of each. When the mixture reaches a temperature of 104 °C, the acid and the pectin in the fruit react with the sugar, and the jam will set on cooling. However, most cooks work by trial and error, bringing the mixture to a "fast rolling boil", watching to see if the seething mass changes texture, and dropping tiny samples on a plate to see if they run.

How easily a jam sets depends on the pectin content of the fruit. Some fruits, such as gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, citrus fruits, apples and raspberries, set very well; others, such as strawberries and ripe blackberries, need to have pectin added. There are proprietary pectin products on the market, and most industrially-produced jams use them. Home jam-makers sometimes rely on adding a pectin-rich fruit to a poor setter; hence the popular old favourite blackberry and apple. Other tricks include extracting juice from redcurrants or gooseberries. Making jam at home used to be common, but the practice is declining, and the accessories, particularly the cellophane covers for jam jars, are becoming more difficult to find in some locations.

In the United States, jam which has been filtered to remove pulp and make it clear is called jelly. Jam which has whole pieces of fruit is called preserves, or conserves if it has nuts as well. Jam with fruit peel is called marmalade.

In the European Union, the jam directive (Council Directive 79/693/EEC, 24 July 1979) set minimum standards for the amount of "fruit" in jam, but the definition of fruit was expanded to take account of several unusual kinds of jam made in the EU. For this purpose, "fruit" is considered to include many things that are not ordinarily classified as fruits: "tomatoes, the edible parts of rhubarb stalks, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and water-melons". This definition continues to apply in the new directive, Council Directive 2001/113/EC (20 December 2001).

Joan Miró used blackberry jam as an art medium.

In a 2005 poll of Die Besten Erfolg-Geschichten Des Jahres (literally: 'The Year's Best Success Stories') for the German Seltsam ('Bizarre') magazine, jam was voted joint third place with Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. [1]

See also

• Lekvar
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J)

External links

• National Center for Home Food Preservation - How do I...Jam & Jelly
• Council Directive 2001/113/EC (20 December 2001)

This article is about the food; for the type of fungi, see Jelly fungi

This article is about the food; for the type of footwear, see Jelly Shoes

Jelly is a sweet or savoury food gel, usually made through the addition of gelatin or pectin. Sweet food gels include pectin-based fruit jam or gelatin desserts such as Jell-O and blancmange. Savoury food gels include aspic or plain gelatine. Vegetarians & Vegans make jelly not with gelatine (which is made from animal collagen), but with agar (which is made from seaweed).

In beekeeping, royal jelly is a specific foodstuff made by bees which, when fed to bee larvae, turns them into queen bees.

Jelly rubber is a soft, porous material made from PVC and softeners.

A variety of pre-packaged gelatin dessert products for sale at a supermarket in the U.S. state of Wisconsin in 2004

Regional variations

In the United States, the term is often used to mean jam in general, whether it has gelled or not. Concord grape jelly is usually used in the staple of North American school lunches - the peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PBJ or PB&J). Mayhaw jelly is a delicacy in the American South. In cookery the term jelly is sometimes reserved for a smooth pectin-based jelly made from fruit juice, as opposed to jam, which contains not only juice but actual chunks of the fruit, or marmalade, which contains also some rind or peel (especially of citrus fruit). There is also fruit butter, which is a sweet spread made of fruit cooked to a paste, then lightly sweetened. Thus: grape jelly, strawberry jam, orange marmalade, apple butter.

Jelly, as sold in UK

Jelly babies are a popular gelatine based confectionery in the UK and gummi bears are popular worldwide.

Miscellaneous

• There is a Weebl and Bob cartoon called Jelly, see Jelly (Weebl and Bob episode)

Look up jelly in Wiktionary, the free dictionary