10 Fun Facts About Breakfast Preserves

Which fruit spread is made from juice and sugar, giving a clear, firm result without pulp?

Jelly is made like jam but with the pulp filtered out after the first cooking, which is why a good one is clear and sparkling.

What plant cell-wall substance is the gelling agent that sets jams and jellies?

It was first isolated and described by Henri Braconnot in 1825, and orange and lemon rind is about 30% of it by weight.

'Marmalade' is believed to come from a Portuguese word for a preserve of which fruit?

The Portuguese 'marmelada' traces back through Latin to a Greek word built from 'honey' and 'round fruit', and 'marmelo' became the Galician-Portuguese word for the fruit itself.

Which type of fruit spread often combines several fruits, sometimes with added nuts or dried fruit?

A conserve is also the name for a whole-fruit jam, which is cooked only briefly so the pieces stay intact and the set is often softer.

Which spread, also called lekvar, is made by cooking apples or plums down to a paste?

The cooked pulp is forced through a sieve or blended, and it is generally made from larger crops such as apples, plums, peaches or grapes.

Beyond sweetness, what primary role does sugar play in the preservation of jams and jellies?

The high sugar content gives jam a low water activity, which is why an unopened jar keeps for a very long time and an opened one lasts at room temperature.

Which of these fruits is rich in the natural gelling agent that sets jam?

Fresh apples are about 1 to 1.5% gelling agent by weight, and orange rind, at around 30%, is the richest common source.

Marmalade is distinguished from jam chiefly by the inclusion of what?

The peel gives marmalade its distinctive bitter edge, and marmalade also uses more water than jam does.

Which bitter citrus from a Spanish city's trees is shipped to Britain yearly for marmalade?

It sets better and yields more than sweet oranges do, which is why British marmalade makers prize it.

A Scottish legend credits the accidental creation of orange marmalade to which city?

James Keiller and his mother Janet ran a small sweet shop in Dundee's Seagate and went on to produce the famous 'Dundee Marmalade'.