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Is there a Difference Between Jam and Jelly?

What exactly is the Difference Between Jam and Jelly?


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Although there is a massive range of fruit preserves, marmalades, confit, fruit butter, fruit spreads, and fruit curds, there are some pretty big differences between jam and jelly. Both of preserves in this question do have a few things in common though. They have both been around for centuries, and both involve minimal (but different) processing methods.

The biggest difference between these two popular preserves is the ingredients. The second biggest difference is how they’re made. According to www.todayifoundout.com, Jelly is made from fruit juice. The fruit is crushed. Next the juice is strained and then boiled along with sugar and other ingredients (mainly pectin) that help the consistency to thicken up. Jam is made almost the same way. After crushing the fruit, there is NO straining or even taking the seeds out. Anything on the fruit that can be eaten will stay in the jam. Because the fruit stays in, this helps the consistency stay thick as well, so the pectin that is used in the jelly is NOT used in the jam.

When it comes to taste, jellies tend to be sweeter. Both preserves have sugar in them but since jam still has the fruit actually left in it, it will naturally have more tartness to it that the jelly will lack. In regards to texture, jelly will be more even and easier to spread, jam is usually lumpy and a bit chunky, which will not make it spread as evenly as jelly will.

In the end, both are generally used the same way (by children and adults), spread onto some delicious baked good and thoroughly enjoyed. A fun fact that I found on www.jelly.org, states that kids tend to prefer jelly (I’m assuming because it’s sweeter) and adults tend to prefer jam, but both “children and adults eat the products with equal frequency.”

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