Can someone tell me the difference between jam and preserves. I know that jelly is made from the juice of fruit and the jam is made with using the whole fruit. Is jam and preserves the same thing?
In preserves you would generally use either larger pieces of fruit or small whole fruit. In preserves, the shape of the pieces of fruit is retained to some degree. For jam, the fruit would be chopped, mashed or cooked to the point that the fruit falls apart.
Am I correct in assuming that jam and preserves are basically the same thing except for the size of the pieces of fruit?
I really can’t think of any other difference between them.
Nor can I.
For an extreme example, look at fig preserves. Most varieties are more whole figs in a sugar syrup than anything else. Where other preserves have much smaller pieces.
I used to buy these just to eat the delicious figs…until I discovered fresh figs.
Also, preserves aren’t necessarily sweet, there are some savory/spicey preserves too.