What Is the Difference Between Jam and Jelly?

Jam and jelly are sweet and sticky and delicious. They are the stuff of school day lunches as the “J” part of a PB and J.  What was Mom putting in your lunch – jam or jelly – and what is the difference between them?  Both of them are products made from fruit and sugar.  Both are widely used around the world.  They have much in common, but there are differences.  

The basics for making both jam and jelly are the same. You need fruit, sugar, pectin, and heat. Jams can actually be made with or without additional pectin, depending on your preference and the type of fruit you are using. 

What is the difference between jam and jelly? 

• To make jam, you boil crushed fruit and sugar until it thickens, adding pectin as needed, until the proper consistency is reached. Jam contains bits of fruit, like chunky peanut butter contains bits of peanuts. 
• To make jelly, you boil fruit juice, sugar, and either pectin or gelatin together until the proper consistency is reached. Jelly is clear, containing no bits of fruit. Further, jelly is often able to hold the shape of the container it cooled in, unlike jam, which flattens when removed from its container.  

Never one to leave any stone unturned, the United States government gives its two cents about what is the difference between jam and jelly. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), jellies are made entirely of fruit juices with no bits of fruit. 

Jams are made of fruit pieces, including pulp and seeds. The FDA even offers gradings for types of jams and jellies, not to mention the percentage of sugar contained in various varieties, and even pH levels. To some degree, the FDA takes the fun out of the brown bag lunch. 

History of Jam and Jelly

Jams and jellies have been with us for centuries. Some people date the introduction of these spreads to Europe during the Crusades, when the soldiers brought jams and jellies home from the Middle East. 

Certainly, people have been preserving fruits and vegetables by drying them for millennia, but processing the fruits and preserving them in earthen crocks or jars is a comparatively new way to store for the future. 

Even today, individuals are not limited to the jam and jelly selections of their local grocery store or gourmet food shop. People around the planet make their favorite jams and jellies in their own kitchen using “family secret” recipes or even recipes found in cookbooks or online. 

Types of Jam and Jelly

There are many types of preserved fruit spreads beyond jams and jellies:

• Conserves are whole fruits preserved in sugar, and may include dried fruits or nuts. 
• Fruit butters are cooked, whole fruits run through a sieve to produce a smooth consistency, then preserved. 
• Fruit curds are fruits preserved in combination with eggs, fruit juice, zest of the fruit, and sugar.
• Fruit spreads are popular substitutes for jams and jellies because they contain no sugar.
• Marmalade is a jelly made from citrus fruit that also contains some of the zest of the fruit.  

Eating Jelly and Jam

The most popular flavors of jam and jelly in the United States today are strawberry jam and grape jelly. Other popular flavors include apple jelly, grape jam, apricot jam, red raspberry jam, blackberry jam, and peach jam. Also, children prefer the smooth texture of jelly, while adults gravitate to the fruity chunks of jam. Those who are watching their fat intake often find jams and jellies an acceptable substitute for butter. Butter, at 102 calories per tablespoon, has twice as many calories as jams and jellies, at an average of 48 calories per tablespoon. And jams and jellies do not have something that butter is full of – fat! Jams and jellies are fat free. So you see that jams and jellies are similar but different. You can make jams and jellies with the same kinds of fruits, and the results will be slightly different. Now you get to choose. Do you like the chunks of fruit in jams or the smooth texture of jellies?