A jelly is a sweet or savoury food gel, usually made through the addition of gelatin or pectin to edible liquids.

Sweet jellies include pectin-based fruit jam or gelatin desserts such as Jell-O and blancmange. Savoury jellies include aspic or plain gelatine. Vegetarians and Vegans make jellies using agar, which is made from seaweed as opposed to animal collagen-based gelatin.

In the United States, the usual distinction between "jelly" and jam is that the latter contains visible seeds or pieces of fruit, whereas the former does not. Jam is also often thicker and more spreadable. The traditional process of making jelly called for the cooked ingredients to be put into a cloth bag. The liquid that drained through the bag without squeezing could be made into a transparent jelly; the remaining thick contents in the bag could be made into jam. Gelatine desserts are not ordinarily referred to as "jelly" in the US, and it is rare (though not unheard of) to use the term for savoury foods of any description. Mayhaw jelly is a delicacy in parts of the American South.

In cooking, a variety of terms are used to classify pectin-based jellies:

• "True" jellies are smooth textured and made from fruit juice, such as grape jelly.
• Jams contain both fruit juice and piece of the fruit's flesh, strawberry jam for example. Jams are also called preserves.
• Marmalades are jams that contain some of the fruit's rind or peel. Citrus fruits are commonly used in marmalades.
• Fruit butters are sweet spreads made of fruit cooked to a paste and then lightly sweetened, such as apple butter.

Trivia

• Rowntree's Jelly is one of the biggest manufacturers of jelly in the United Kingdom, and started production in 1923. Recently taken over, now Hartley's Jelly.
• Jelly has been eaten since Ancient Egyptian times.
• It is mentioned in early Anglo-Saxon recipe books.
• Mass production began in the 19th Century
• The first concentrated cube arrived in 1932.
• By the early 1990s UK sales hit £37m a year.
• In the UK "Ice cream and jelly" became the most popular after-dinner dessert, but has suffered a decline in that sense since the 1990s.
• Uncooked pineapple contains the enzyme bromelain and cannot touch a jelly mix as it will stop the jelly from setting properly by breaking down the gelatin. Papaya and pawpaw contain the enzyme papain, kiwi fruit contains actinidin, and figs contain ficin- all with similar effects. Cooking denatures the enzyme, rendering it non-operative.
• A popular delicacy among students at some colleges and universities is jelly made by replacing some of the water with alcohol, often a spirit. The resulting "jelly shot" cannot be spilled like a normal drink and can be consumed quickly if desired.

See also

Condiments | Food ingredients | Gels

Gelee | Jalea | ゼリー | Galaretka | Geléia | Желе | Gelé