Posted by Peter H on February 29, 2004 at 14:17:27 from 213.122.169.139 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Jelly references posted by Mike Dennis on February 29, 2004 at 10:06:21:
Concise Oxford Dictionary - 'preserve n. - Jam' Mike Dennis may be right, but I have always thought that 'preserve' was just a posh name for jam. But I must come back to the tinned jam stowed aboard the Fram. If the berries were still whole, how could it be jam, because the jam-making process surely involves breaking down the internal structure of the fruit to release sugars and pectins, so that it will 'set' and be capable of spreading. Fruit can be preserved whole, of course, in jars or tins, in liquid, where care has been taken not to squash the fruit. You do occasionally find that the 'harder' fruits like damsons will still occur semi-whole and semi-firm in jam, but never loganberries or raspberries which will collapse completely in the heat and stirring of the jam-making.
My other problem is with jam in tins anyway. Jam is sold in jars so that you can screw the top back on, as you only want to use a bit at a time. With tins you have to empty the tin after opening, to avoid metal contamination. Tinned jam might be sold as catering supplies, but here the tin containers are usually large ('catering size'). Why would such a tin be aboard Fram? Even Roger could surely not eat a whole catering tin of jam in one go?