Jam

A typical jar of jam

Jam is a food item, and condiment usually made from pressed fruit, sugar, and sometimes pectin.

How they are made?

Most jams are cooked. After making, jam is normally put into an airtight jar. Usually a jam contains as much sugar as it contains fruit. The two parts are then cooked together to form a gel.

Marmalade is jam made from oranges and tends to have pulp and peels.

Jelly is different from jam as it is made from mostly juice instead of fruit.

Fruit butters are made from slow cooking fruit to a smooth consistency.

Chutney is a type of Jam made without much sugar and used a a side dish in the Indian subcontinent to be eaten together with roti, rice, or other main dish.

Joan Miró used blackberry jam as an art medium.

As a gel, jam is neither a solid or a liquid. It can contain chunks of fruit which are solids. Once opened and out of the fridge the gel becomes more like a liquid, and is able to decay.

Types

Fruit preserves (or jams): the solid content of the finished fruit preserves or jams shall be not less than 65 degrees Brix, according to the USDA standards.

Common fruit jams either single or multiple fruit include the following

• Grapefruit

• Black raspberry

• Huckleberry

• Blueberry

• Loganberry

• Boysenberry

• Orange

• Cherry

• Pineapple

• Crabapple

• Raspberry, red raspberry

• Dewberry

• Tomato

• Tangerine

• Yellow tomato

• Elderberry

• Youngberry

• Apple

• Nectarine

• Apricot

• Peach

• Cranberry

• Pear

• Damson, damson plum

• Gooseberry

• Red currant

• currant

• Greengage

• greengage plum

• Guava

• Mango

USDA grading

1. U.S. Grade A or U.S. Grade A for Manufacturing is the quality of fruit and preserves (or jams) that have a good consistency, good color; that are practically free from defects; that have a good flavor; and that score not less than 85 points when scored in accordance with the scoring system by USDA.
2. U.S. Grade B is the quality of fruit preserves (or jams) that possess a reasonably good consistency; that possess a reasonably good color; that are reasonably free from defects; that possess a fairly good flavor; and that score not less than 70 points when scored in accordance with the scoring system outlined in this subpart.
3. Substandard is the quality of fruit preserves (or jams) that fail to meet the requirements of U.S. Grade B.

Other websites

• making jam without pectin
• National Center for Home Food Preservation - How do I...Jam & Jelly
• Council Directive 2001/113/EC (20 December 2001)

• Wikipedia

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the U.S. Government Publishing Office.