Preserve, jelly & marmalade – a sustainable, zero-waste spread Marilou Cabatingan, 08/01/202408/19/2025 I cook all my own fruit using the same recipe – super easy. But I’ll warn you – my jams contain a lot of sugar. In sustainable hotel catering, the trend is going in a different direction – up to 90 percent fruit is used! Our partner hoteliers have told us how they do it. Marmalade, jelly, preserve, jam, fruit spread … What’s the difference? Admit it: You’ve probably wondered about the difference between jam and marmalade! We’ve all been there. To help you answer that question easily next time, we’ve looked it up just for you. Marmalade: There is no such thing as strawberry or peach marmalade. According to EU law, only preserved citrus fruits can be called marmalade – like the popular orange marmalade. This is in line with British usage, where only orange marmalade is called marmalade and everything else is called jam. In Germany and Austria, however, there are a few exceptions, e.g. for products at farmers’ markets, and in this blog I don’t take the distinction between marmalade and jam very seriously either. Jam/Preserve: Preserves are what the English call jam and what many Germans (mistakenly) call marmalade: whole fruit cooked down with enough sugar to keep for at least a year. It may (but is not required to) contain pieces of fruit. Jelly/ Gelée: With jelly, you just use the fruit juice instead of the fruit. A typical example is apple jelly, which is made from apple juice. Whole apples, on the other hand, are used to make apple sauce. Fruit spread: If the sugar content is less than 50 percent, it is no longer a jam but a fruit spread. Fruit spreads have a shorter shelf life, but contain significantly fewer calories Sugarless Fruit Spread At the OLM Nature Escape in South Tyrol, the culinary concept was developed in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Theodor Falser. At the newly opened eco-aparthotel, only breakfast is included, and all other catering options can be booked using a modular system. The goal is that 80 percent of the food will come from organic farms in the area. The food should also be healthy, which is where the fruit spread comes into play: at OLM Nature Escape, 90% of the spread consists of fruit and only 10% of sugar! (For comparison: I use the same amount of sugar as fruit, i.e. 1:1). The almost sugar-free fruit spread is made by chopping up ripe fruit and cooking it down using a little sugar without a gelling agent. (10 percent sugar means 100 grams of sugar per 1 kg of fruit.) The jars have to be frozen because the low sugar content is not enough to preserve the fruit. This is how it is done at the South Tyrolean Aparthotel, where it is described as the perfect spread “for sugar-conscious gourmets”. Jam requires fully ripe fruit “Only fully ripe fruit with a full flavor and sufficient fructose can be used to make a fruity jam,” says the SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA in Bad Herrenalb. The German hotel has an exemplary zero-waste breakfast buffet. Butter is dispensed from a butter machine and homemade jam is served in small jars. Creative fruit combinations A special feature of the jams in the SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA is the creative mix. Some examples: Apricot-peach Strawberry-blackberry Elderberry-pear There are also tasty combinations with spices, such as: Strawberry-chili Apricot-cinnamon Rhubarb-ginger “Ideal spices for preserving are cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, lavender, rose petals, cardamom, pepper or cloves.” – BLACK FOREST PANORAMA Jams are a flagship product for hotels I would say that any self-respecting hotel run independently (i.e. not part of a chain) makes its own jams, marmalades or fruit spreads. At the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio Allg?u, “herb witch” Sandra even occasionally introduces hotel guests to the world of preserving. “Together with the guests, regional and seasonal fruits are prepared and then made into jam,” reports the Allg?u wellness hotel. Breakfast with home made jam and a view of Neuschwanstein castle At the Hotel Das Rübezahl near the Allg?u town of Füssen, overlooking Neuschwanstein Castle, you can even get a homemade jam as a parting gift. “The homemade varieties vary according to the season,” they say. Cornelian cherry or apricot jam In Austria, where the sustainably managed Gut Guntrams has built “floating” accommodations among local fruit trees, Cornelian Cherry Preserve (also known as Dirndl) is a big hit. The fruit spread is 70 percent fruit and a real vitamin C bomb. A homemade rosehip fruit spread is served for breakfast. At the Naturhotel Outside in East Tyrol, apricot jam is a classic. It is also “the most popular variety at the hotel”. Croissants with coconut jam The beauty of traveling are the regional differences. In Germany and Austria, for example, Cornelian cherries, rose hips and apricots are typical. In Thailand, on the other hand, you can try jackfruit and passion fruit jam, mango or coconut marmalade as local products. Our partner, Keemala, a resort of 38 Pool Villas in the tropical forest, serves its homemade jams with homemade croissants in the morning. The dough gets folded 28 times following an original French recipe. It takes four days to make the resort’s perfect croissant dough, but it’s worth it – along with the homemade jams made from Thai fruit, it’s something that many guests respond to positively and mention in reviews on Tripadvisor & Co. Instructions – How to make perfect jam from any fruit If you haven’t made your own jam before, here are my instructions. The recipe is my mother’s, so it has been a tried and true method for over 50 years, and I can boast that I have taught several fruit tree owners how to preserve their fruit. This method saves all the fruit that is not presentable for the fruit platter, is super regional and organic (I’m talking about the tree in the own backyard), and there is no transportation or packaging waste – except for sugar and gelling agents. How to make your own (vegan) gelling sugar I use pectin as a gelling agent. It is made from apples and is vegan. Usually it is sold in sachets and 1 sachet is enough for 1 kg of sugar. Tip: Always mix 1 kg of sugar, even if you use less later. You can save the rest of the mixture for your next jam. The easiest way to do this is to put 1 packet (1 kg) of sugar in a large bowl, add the packet of apple pectin, and mix the two together. Done. Choosing the fruits The fruit must be ripe. It is best to use fruit that is almost overripe – brown spots, dots, etc. are no problem! In my family (with kids), the classics like strawberry jam or blackberry jam are my favorites. (By the way, picking blackberries and then making jam is a great afternoon and evening activity.) In Jerusalem, we also have figs, plums, and “aska dunja” (an orange fruit with large seeds). Peaches, apricots and quinces are also suitable (note: quince jam is cooked without gelling agents – quince gels on its own). Preparing the fruits Wash the fruit well – not under running water, but in a bowl of water and then through a strainer. This is especially important for delicate fruit such as strawberries. Then, depending on the fruit, remove the seeds, peel, skin, greens, brown spots, anything inedible (organic waste or compost) and you have a bowl of fruit flesh. Tip: Don’t forget to add lemon Lemon juice should be added to any jam – it not only helps with the consistency, but also rounds out the flavor! For up to 1000 grams of fruit, I add the juice of ? to 1 lemon. The right mix of fruit and sugar I already warned you. I use a 1:1 mixing ratio, which means 1000 grams of sugar per 1000 grams of fruit. When you have 740 grams of fruit flesh on the scale, weigh 740 grams of your prepared kilo of jam-sugar mixture. (This makes about 4 to 5 jars of jam.) As mentioned above, the recipe is at least 50 years old and does not correspond to today’s healthy lifestyle, but the 1:1 mixing ratio has decisive advantages: Flavor: In my opinion, it simply tastes best with the full sugar content. I personally prefer to eat less sugar than reduced sugar. Shelf life: Before refrigerators, fruit was preserved in jars. This is exactly how food was stored in those days: Vegetables were pickled in salt, and fruit was boiled down with sugar. But you need a lot of sugar to do that. As you can read in the OLM Nature Escape recipe, a fruit spread with 90 percent fruit must be frozen, otherwise it would go bad in the cupboard. Jam jars and hygiene – a must My jam jars are a hodgepodge of screw-top jars (twist-off lids) that have accumulated. From other jams I receive as gifts, pesto, olives, etc. My Tip: Use lots of small jars instead of a few large ones. Freshly opened jam is everyone’s favorite, and the small jars keep it appetizing until the end. Sterilize jars You have to sterilize the jars and lids in hot water. Simply fill a large pot with boiling water and boil the jars and lids for 10 minutes. Then fish them out of the water with pastry tongs (or similar), place them on a clean (!) kitchen towel, and dry them (after they have cooled down a bit) with another clean (!) kitchen towel. I always place the open jars on a clean, large, round stainless steel tray. This has the advantage that if something goes wrong while pouring, you can still pick it up. I leave the lids wet on the tea towel. Making your own preserve Now it’s time for the actual process. Place the prepared fruit flesh in a food processor (e.g. Thermomix, 5 seconds, speed 5) and puree to the desired consistency (not too fine). If you like chunks of fruit, put a few pieces to one side. Place the puréed fruit in a large, not too deep saucepan on the stove with the weighed caster sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. As soon as the marmalade comes to the boil, reduce the heat. Caution: Do not leave preserves unattended while cooking. Depending on the fruit and quantity, this will take varying amounts of time – allow 20 to 40 minutes and do not take your eyes off the pot during this time. You will need to keep stirring with a wooden spoon to make sure that nothing sticks to the sides or bottom of the pan, or that the fruit mixture does not boil over. It’s best to have some interesting podcasts ready for you Plate test To check if the preserve is ready, put some on a plate with a small spoon and lift the plate so that the preserve runs down – if it runs very fast, it’s not ready; if it runs a little slower, it’s ready! (I’m going by feel here, and it’s something that comes with time – but with us it’s also the case that sometimes the preserve is a little firmer and sometimes a little runnier…) Bottling the preserve Now pour the finished, still boiling hot preserve directly from the pot into the prepared, sterilized jars (a clean tray is handy here in case something goes wrong. Or you can get a funnel with a large opening). Fill the jars to the top. Then screw on the lids (with washed hands) and turn the jars upside down. Leave them like this until the next day, when you can label your preserve and put it in the cupboard. When you open the jars many months later, you should hear a “pop” when you first open them. One jar (the one that you cannot fill to the brim) does not need to be turned upside down, but can be served directly Enjoy! Food