What's the difference between jam and jelly?

Answer 1

Here's the order of fruity goodness.
1. Preserves has chunks of fruit.
2. Jams has pureed (blended up) fruit, but still uses the whole fruit.
3. Jelly is just gelled fruit juice.

Answer 2

Jam - contains both fruit juice and pieces of the fruit's (or vegetable's) flesh, however some cookbooks define Jam as cooked and gelled fruit (or vegetable) purees. Properly, the term jam refers to a product made with whole fruit, cut into pieces or crushed. The fruit is heated with water and sugar to activate the pectin in the fruit. The mixture is then put into containers Jelly - In the U.S. and Canada, the term jelly refers to a type of clear fruit spread consisting of firmed fruit (or vegetable) juice made with pectin. In British English, these products are commonly referred to by the terms fruit spread or preserves, although jelly is also used in some instances, for example mint jelly. Jelly can be made from sweet, savory or hot ingredients. Jelly is made by a similar process to jam, with the additional step of filtering out the fruit pulp after the initial heating. A cloth "jelly bag" is traditionally used as a filter.

Answer 3

What is the difference between jelly, jam and preserves?

Jelly, jam and preserves are all made from fruit mixed with sugar and pectin. The difference between them comes in the form that the fruit takes.

In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice.
In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit (and is less stiff than jelly as a result).
In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a syrup or a jam.
Pectin is an undigestible carbohydrate (fiber). It is found in the cell walls of most fruit. When heated with sugar in water, it gels, giving jam, jelly and preserves their thickness.

Answer 4

Americans call what Brits call jam, "jelly". You can also sometimes get a different sort of jam in the UK, which is seedless and has no fruit in (pretty darn boring really), which is labeled jelly, but you don't often see it because very few people like it because it's so boring.
Brits call what Americans call jello, jelly. It is a dessert made from gelatine and flavoured with fruit. You quite often get jelly with pieces of fruit in. This is called a fruit jelly. It has nothing to do with anything you find in a jar.
Posh jam is called preserve or conserve so they can put a higher price on it.

Is that clear?

Answer 5

Jam is made from whole fruit. Jelly from just the juice.

Bert

Answer 6

I believe Jelly is made from the juice of the fruits in question (no pulp, no bits of fruit, etc) ... Jam has bits of the fruit still in it.

In some sense jelly can be distilled from jam by just filtering out the fruit bits.

Answer 7

Jam has pieces of the fruit in it while jelly only uses the fruit juices.

Answer 8

Being a former chef and having made fruit ones, veg ones and wine based ones, it is relatively simple, Jam is made from whole fruit and can contain piece of fruit and seed if they have them.

Jelly is made from the purees or juices of the fruit, like grape jelly and apple jelly, then tere is marmalade that is another catergory.

Answer 9

well the difference is that jelly is more wobbly, and jam is not that wobbly and jam has pieces of the fruit in it...and jam is more healthy than jelly and contains less artificial products-besides it probably has the same amount of preservatives....they are both very tasty though....

Answer 10

Jelly is made from fruit juice and so has no fruit bits
Jam is made by boiling fruit and does have fruit bits.