Eight different delicious fruit spreads have made their way around people’s tables. In my home preservation recipes, I have come across the typical jams, jellies, preserves, and marmalades that we should all be familiar with. Recently, I learned about conserves, fruit jars of butter, honey, and curds.
Even though many of these fruit spreads are similar, they differ from each other. In this post, I break down each one for you. I explain the definition of each and how they are made. What makes each of them different from one another?
What is a jelly?
Jelly is a spread that has an elastic and soft consistency. After jellies are set, they should hold their shape, yet be tender and spreadable. You make jelly with white granulated sugar, pectin, an acid, and flavored juice.
When you break down the components of jelly, you will understand better how and what jellies are. The white sugar not only sweetens the spread but acts as a preservative. It also works together with the pectin and should be proportioned to each other. Sugar enhances the strength of the gel by attracting some of the water away from the pectin. And sugar also needs to partner with the pectin to gel properly.
An acid element typically comes as vinegar or lemon juice. Acids work together with pectin just like sugar. It extracts more pectin from the whole fruit during the simmering process. Acid also helps in the gel formation and the flavor of the jelly.
I can make the flavor component from many things. You can use any flavored fruit juice, wines, teas, and liqueurs. Simmering out the flavors and juices from fresh herbs, flavorful flowers, and whole fruits and vegetables can also make fantastic and unique jelly spreads.
Try your hand at making these fantastically unique jellies.
- Blueberries Jelly from Homestead Wishing
- Apple Cider Jelly from Good Food Stories
- Dandelion Jelly and Corn Cob Jelly from Simply Canning
- Cucumber Jelly and Forsythia Jelly from The Free Range Life
Jams versus preserves?
In my opinion, jams and preserves are quite similar. I found the two names interchangeably often. I even think that I have mislabeled my jams that should have been a preserve. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t delicious.
Jams are a thick mixture of crushed fruit, and sugar boiled gently. The mixture is boiled until the fruit is soft, yet is still thick enough that it spreads easily and can form a blob. Jams are thick but not as firm as a jelly. You can make jams both with or without pectin.
On the other hand, preserves are chopped pieces of fruits boiled into a gelled syrup. Very similar to jams, you can make preserves with or without pectin as well.
Here are some great jams and preserves to try out.
- Grapefruit Vanilla Jam and Habanero Peach Jam from The View from Great Island.
- Christmas Jam and Low Sugar Strawberry Jam from The Rustic Elk
- Old Fashioned Fig Preserves from Chef John Besh
- Sweet Cherry Preserves from The Cilantropist
What is a conserve?
Conserves are something that I have just recently become familiar with. In laments terms, it is a jam or preserve that has added dried fruits and nuts. The fruits can comprise raisins, shredded coconut, or other dried fruit. Chop and add in walnuts, pecans, or macadamia.
You can easily turn a jam or preserve into a conserve with the addition of about 1/2 cup of dried fruit and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts. And the fruits and nuts fold into the jam or preserves at the end of the cooking process.
Some of the best conserves for you to make.
- Spring Conserve and Carrot Cake Jam, easy recipes to turn into a conserve from our homestead.
- Plum Conserve from Serious Eats.
- Cranberry Pecan Conserve from SB Canning
What is a marmalade?
Marmalade is more of a citrus spread made from the peel and pulp of the fruit. Citrus fruit typically found in marmalades are oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit. When you look at the spread, you should be able to see long-cut pieces of citrus fruit suspended in the marmalade.
Try your hand at some great and tasty marmalades.
- Sweet Onion Marmalade from An Oregon Cottage.
- Meyer Lemon Marmalade and Kumquat Marmalade with Vanilla Bean from SB Canning.
- Lemon, Fig, & Lavender Marmalade from Laundry Etc.
Fruit Butter versus Fruit Honey?
You may or may not have heard of these two different spreads before. Both are delicious if made correctly. And both names are not the proper description of what they are. Fruit butter has no actual butter in it, and fruit honey doesn’t have honey. Here I will explain.
Fruit butter is a smooth spread that is created by slow-cooking whole fruit and sugar together until it reaches the right consistency, and I cook the water content out. They use the pulp of the fruit more than the juice; therefore, not all fruit works well for this spread. You see apples, peaches, pumpkin, and pears being used for fruit butter. There is also no pectin in this spread.
Here are a few fruit butters for you to try out.
- Summertime Peach Butter from Attainable Sustainable
- Pumpkin Butter from Wicked Good Kitchen
- Cranberry Butter from Dessert for Two
Fruit honey is different, and its name can be extremely misleading. There is no whole, chopped, or crushed fruit in these recipes. The fruit flavor comes from only fruit juices. You can use just about any kind of fruit juice you want. Many recipes will use fruit peelings to make fruit honey. It is a great way to reduce the amount of food waste in the kitchen.
As stated before, there is no honey. The second ingredient, white granulated sugar, is cooked in the fruit juice for an extended period until the mixture becomes thick but pourable. The mixture should resemble and have the consistency of honey. There is no pectin in fruit honey, just like with fruit butter.
Here are some great fruit honeys to try out.
- Strawberry Honey, Peach Honey, and Pear Honey from Clemson Cooperative Extension
What is a fruit curd?
Fruit curd is more of a dessert spread than a breakfast biscuit spread, as the products described earlier. Curds work perfectly as a spread, tart or pastry fillings, or cake spread layer. They are extremely different from all the other spreads previously mentioned because it has egg yolks.
A fruit which is typically a citrus fruit, white sugar, and egg yolks make up a fruit curd. The fruits are usually tarter like from an orange, pineapple, mango, lemon, tangerine, etc. And of course, the white granulated sugar helps to balance out the tart. Next, you add in the egg yolk, which turns the spread into a smooth custard-like mixture when gently cooked together.
Look at these amazing fruit curd recipes.
- Lemon Curd for canning from National Center for Home Preservation
- Strawberry Curd and Apple Curd from Wonky Wonderful
- Pineapple Curd from Baked by an Introvert
Sources
So Easy To Preserve 4th ed. 1999. Cooperative Extension Service. The University of Georgia.