Before the arrival of modern fridges in households, one had to depend upon the centuries old art of preserving food items in cans for future use. Certain substances were added, and a solution was made that could last for a long time without going stale and fruit fleshes were kept inside these syrupy substances and canned. This art led to the development of many different types of jams, jellies, and conserves.
Jam
When fresh fruit is boiled with sugar until it is thick, so that it can be spread over breads, jams are created. Jams are very relieving and comforting for moms as they can make food items tastier and more appealing to kids and others. Jams have full fruits crushed and added to sugar to be boiled. This is why jam is thick and does not spread that easily in comparison to a jelly where fruit is crushed and strained into its juice before boiling with sugar and pectin.
Conserves
Conserves or fruit conserves are also fruit products and serve the same purpose of being spread over breads and other food items to make them tastier. They are very thick and contain dried fruits inside them. These dried fruits are cooked inside a sugary medium. In fact, it is better to label a conserve as a whole fruit jam. When a whole fruit is stewed in a syrupy base, to allow the sugar to penetrate the fruit and the taste of the fruit to be changed onto something similar to a jam, we have made a conserve. Sometimes many layers of sugar are applied over the whole fruit and left for a few hours, to seep inside the fruit. Then the fruit is heated in this syrupy mixture, to be converted into a conserve. Conserves of plum and gooseberries are very popular. In making a conserve, the issue of the skin of the fruit has to be kept in mind.
Jam and Conserve
• Jam is made by cutting, crushing and boiling fruits in a sugary medium so that the fruit release pectin and set into a structure that can be easily spread over breads.
• Conserves are made by preserving whole fruits with skins into a sugary base. This process does not allow the entire pectin of the fruit to be released
• Conserve is a whole fruit jam while an ordinary jam has fruit crushed into the final product
• Jam is thicker than conserve as it is boiled for a longer time
• Jam can be made with a large variety of fruits while conserve is possible with some limited fruits and dry fruits such as plums and gooseberries