Jam vs. Preserves...........what's the difference?

I’m going to answer without looking it up, so I could be wrong. But I always understood it that jam was a jellied fruit juice, and preserves have pieces of the actual fruit cooked in with the mix.

Hmmmmm….

@ETpro – That’s the difference between jam and jelly. Jelly is just the fruit juice, while jam has fruit in as well. I don’t know about preserves, though…

Edit: I just looked it up. Both jam and jelly are types of preserves, along with chutney, confit, marmalade… et cetera.
But that doesn’t explain John’s conundrum…

Preserves has even more fruit pieces in it than jelly…

Yep- Jelly, just the fruit juice with pectin and tons of sugar. Jam, fruit juice, pectin, sugar and bits of pureed fruit. Preserves, the entire fruit, cut up, sugar and pectin. Buy a small jar of jelly and preserves, then put it on toast and the difference is obvious. Yum! I think I’ll have a toasted English muffin with marmalade…

To me, jams and preserves are synonymous. Both have the fruit, the sugar, the gelatin, etc. Preserves probably have more fruit flesh than do some jams, but they’re virtually the same. The difference lies in jams and “jellies”. Jams have fruit, and on the jar it sometimes reads “40 percent fruit”. Jellies are made with the “juice” of the fruit, and normally do not have the flesh of the fruit in them.

I bought a jar of gooseberry preserves (jam) from Ikea, and every scoop was filled with individual round gooseberries. Yum.

What bothers me is when I buy a jar of “grape” jelly, and then I read the ingredients——“grape juice, apple and/or pear juice, ” I know they put a lot of apple and/or pear juice in it, because grape juice is more costly for the manufacturer. :(

According to Google:

* Jelly is made from fruit juice
* Jam is made from pureed fruit
* Preserves are made from whole fruit
* Spreads are made from whole fruit and/or pureed fruit

I learned the difference when I bought strawberry preserves, and went to put some on a piece of toast, and a whole frickin’ strawberry came out of the jar.

@SavoirFaire You have the absolutely correct answer. Aren’t you supposed to wait while more of us guess and try to remember what our experience has been? Just teasing you, but I AM glad to have the ultimate answer. It’s something I wondered about too, but not enough to look up. Thanks.

Come on… nobody nibbled on my marmalade bait. Dang. What’s marmalade, in this context? XD

@linguaphile Marmalade has shreds of the fruit peel of citrus fruit in it. I love orange marmalade, so I do know what that is.

Exactly as the word states. It is what form 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.

While store purchased can be ok, it is far from homemade jellies, jams or preserves.