The jam is mets obtained, in a general way, while making cook in a bathes some Fruit S, possibly stoned and crossed of pieces, with an equivalent weight of Sucre. It is a food technique of Conservation for the most fragile fruits, it is also a means of consuming certain bitter fruits like the Coing or the Bigarade.

History

Like sugar, jams were introduced tardily in Europe via the Arab world. With the Middle Ages, name jams indicates all the Confiserie S realized starting from food cooked in sugar or honey: candies, candied fruits, etc current jam is often called electuaries , of Latin eleucterium . Originating in pharmacopeia Mésopotamie, is then used like treatment. Various receipts however quickly find their place in the Boutehors, the last service of the medieval Banquet S.

Regarded a long time as an luxury item, jams are standardized at the beginning of the 19th century thanks to the discovery of the beet sugar. Today, they are regarded as a food pleasure, with the rather weak nutritional interest: they contain many glucids, and a little fibers. The majority of the vitamins are eliminated during cooking.

Techniques of manufacture

To put the fruits in a basin, to make them boil and add approximately the equivalent of their sugar weight. To make cook and reduce by possibly adding honey, preferably not aromatized. To let macerate thirty minutes, then to pour out of pots and to close with a little cellophane and to put a lid (the cellophane reduces the risk of mould). To turn over the pots on a cloth, then to let cool. To keep in a place with the shelter of the sun and moisture. If one seeks to obtain a jam easy to paste, let the fruits give their juice, or to press them, and not to leave too many pieces of fruits before preparing jam. The Bassine with jam is traditionally out of copper to ensure a better distribution of heat and form slightly widened to facilitate the evaporation of the water contained in the fruits.

While cooling, jam is solidified under the gelling action of the Pectine of the fruits. It can be necessary of to add when one uses only fruits low in pectin like the Cerise S, the Framboise S, the Poire S or the Rhubarbe for example. When one uses soft fruits like the Coing, the kiwi, the fishing, or the Poire it is also necessary to add an acidifier (generally juice of Citron) to prevent the sugar crystal formation.

Conservation

Jams were, in the past, the average privileged person for to preserve the most fragile fruits (for example, the strawberry S, the Abricot S, blackberries) after harvest. It is the sugar which makes it possible jam to be preserved: it attracts by osmosis water towards the outside of the germs, which desiccates them. If the quantity of sugar is not sufficient to ensure this conservation room temperature (approximately 60%), one obtains a Compote. Crystallized white sugar is generally used because sugar not refined can contain impurities which are likely to deteriorate the conservation. When artisanal jams are made, it happens sometimes that a deposit of moulds is formed on the surface of the bottle. It is necessary that the fruits are well cooked and that the bottles are impeccable to ensure an optimal conservation. One can also pour molten Paraffine or some drops of Eau-de-vie on jams warmed to limit the risks. In the past, the pots were turned over to let jam displace air by the moderately closed lid. Once cooled the pot was given to the place.

Types of jams

Jams themselves indicate preparations where the pulp of the fruits is uniformly distributed in a thick syrup. One can make jam starting from all the fruits: apricot, sweet chestnut, strawberry, raspberry, orange, melon, blackberry, bilberry, Elder tree, plum, rhubarb… They must contain at least sugar 60% once the cooking carried out (according to the law) and fruit minimum 35g for 100g of product implemented (in the basin before cooking). Reduced jams must contain 42% to sugar 45% after cooking and fruit minimum 50g put before cooking. To have name " confiture" , the preparation of fruits must at least contain sugar 60% after cooking (added sugar + sugar of the fruit). Certain jams " high-end " can contain more fruit than the minimum imposed by the regulation. But beyond fruit 65%, quality is not improved because the quantities of water to be evaporated brought by the fruits are too important.

In Australia, one finds rosellas, plum jam kakadu. The Lekvar is prune jams or plums typical of the Central Europe.

There exist many receipts of artisanal jams:

  • Apricot jam - the Abricot is the fruit of the Abricotier.
  • Jam of cynorhodon - the Cynorrhodon is the False-fruit rose tree and wild rose.
  • Jam of rose petals - the Petal S of pinks or wild roses are edible but do not have a pleasant taste, vintages.
  • Jam of blackberries - the blackberries are the edible black false-fruits of the Ronce of the hedges. (Attention, the fruits of the mulberry tree, sometimes called blackberries, are edible but are not appropriate to this receipt).

Frozen

The juice of the fruits, usually extracted after the first cooking, can be cooked with sugar to form a frost. It must contain at least fruit 35%. If the preparation obtained is liquid one speaks then about Sirop.

One finds frosts of strawberry, currant, quince…

Marmalade

A marmalade can indicate a jam containing Agrume S or then a very thick preparation in which the pieces of fruits are not completely taken in frost. A marmalade must contain fruit 20% at least. Marmalade of pineapple, green lemon marmalade, with orange…

Caution! If the term of marmalade is regularly associated with all types of fruits, it is not useless to recall here that a directive going back to 1979 lays out that the " term; marmelade" can apply only to products processed starting from citrus fruits. Therefore, for the purists: yes with the orange marmalade but not with the marmalade of strawberries.

Crystallized of flowers

Names jams or cold being reserved for the preparations containing fruits, one calls Confit flowers the productions which use flowers as principal ingredient.

The receipt of the Miel of dandelions uses for example the flowers or flowerheads of the Pissenlit.

Other preparations

Jams are pasty preparations. Other receipts make it possible to obtain liquids preparation like the Sirop S.

By holding the pulp of the fruits richest in pectin, it is possible to obtain a solid delicacy: the Paste of fruits. The candied fruits S are also obtained with a similar receipt, but cooking is much softer to make it possible sugar to replace the water of the fruits without destabilizing their pulp.

The Chutney S are bitter-sweet preparations of fruits which are used as condiments in the Indian Cuisine.

See too

External bonds

  • Festival of jam with Houplines (Northern)
  • How to make jams
  • preparation, choice of the fruits, material, pectin, receipts, correction of missed jams, etc
  • sweetened Music
  • the company Jam in Geneva
  • Jams of the Ardennes

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