Jelly, jams,
preserves, marmalades and conserves. They all are great on toast or
in a peanut butter sandwich, but what makes each unique? This was actually the conversation that Steve Coyne (Author of 'I Grow Vegetables' blog) were having the other day when were were making jelly. It was this conversation that inspired me to write this short article.
According to
the FDA, they essentially they fall into two distinct categories:
jelly or jam. Now as far as I am concerened, 'preserves' is a
seperate category, at least they are the way my grandmother made
them, however the FDA considerers preserves to fall under the
classification of jams. Because I have been making jams and jellies
for a many years and people often ask me what is the difference
between a jelly, jam, and a preserve, I decied I would write this
quick primer on the differences and similarities of each.
Jelly Or Jam, Which
Is It?
Jelly – Is made
from the strained juice of the fruit. Because jelly does not have any
of the pupled fruit or seeds as they have all been strained out, it
tends to spread more evenly than jam. It is more labor intensive
(although not much) but my grandmother almost never made jelly,
prefering to make jam as she did not want to strain out the “good
stuff” as she called it.
-
Marmalades – A type of jelly made from citrus fruits (lemon, orange, lime etc.) in which the rind is added to and left in the final product. Marmalades have a dual flavor profile being sweet (from the jelly) and sour (from the rind). Not exactly my favorite, but my wife loves orange marmalade.
-
Fruit Butters – Are a variety of jelly, that generally consists of a combination or variety of fruits (not always) that are cooked down until they are thickened until they have the consistency of butter, hence the name 'fruit butters'. Pectin may or may not be added to the mixture depending on the recipe. Popular types of fruit used to make fruit butters include: apples, pears, and peaches. According to the FDA, all fruit butters are considered a variety of jelly.
Jam – For canning
purposes, jam is made the same way as jelly, except that the fruit is
crushed extracting most of the juice, however the fruit solids and
seeds are left in the final product. Because of the pupled fruit
and/or seeds, jams tend to be more lumpy and more difficult to spread
on your toast than jelly.
-
Conserves – Are a variety of jam that generally consists of a combination or variety of fruits. In addition, many conserve recipes include nuts and/or raisins. Conserves can be both savory as well as sweet. As with jam, pectin is added to help it gel. Just like with fruit butters, according to the FDA, all conserves are jams, but not all jams are conserves.
Preserves – Are
small to medium sized chuncks of fruit that are canned in either
fruit juice or a simple syrup. They may have pectin added to make
them slightly 'jam' like in consistency. Depending on the cook and
the recipe they may include a fair amount of crushed fruit, but they
are generally less processed than jam. Therefore I consider them to
be in a seperate category, but this is only my personal opinion.
Preserves gets it's name as it was one of the original ways to
'preserve' whole or slightly crushed fruit. Thereby by allowing the
preserved fruit to be later used to make sauces and flavor other
types of foods during the cooking process. Of all of these
categories, preserves are the least processed (i.e. they are not
smashed, blending or pulped).
Conclusion
So there you have
it, essentially all of these products fall under one of two
categories if you consider preserves to be a jam as the FDA does.
Regardless of whether you call them, jams, jellies, conserves,
marmalades or preserves, they all taste great on your buttered toast
or biscuits at breakfast or on a peanut butter samdwich at lunch.
Preserves are especially nice fresh hot waffles or when used as a
topping for homemade ice cream, or any ice cream for that matter.
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