Frequently Asked Questions
What are preserves?
A preserve is a foodstuff made with fruit and sugar, usually in a way that prolongs the shelf-life of the fruits used. It's the umbrella term for things like jams or jellies. Put simply, all jams, jellies and marmalades are preserves, but not all preserves are jams or jellies.
What are jams?
Jams are preserves that are made from pieces of chopped or whole fruit.
What are marmalades?
Marmalades are jams that are specifically made from citrus fruits. Orange marmalade is the most ubiquitous, but there's other forms, like lemon or grapefruit.What are jellies?
Jellies are preserves made from a fruity liquid. They sometimes include pieces of fruit suspended within them.
What are fruit butters?
Fruit butter is made by simmering fruit very slowly until it reaches the consistency - as the name very much suggests - of soft butter.
What can I do with jam?
There's a lot more to jam than simply making your toast into a dessert or sweet snack, or for using in between layers of cake! Our (in-exhaustive) list of jam pairings would begin something like this:
As a cheeseboard essential: a pear vanilla jam to accompany your blue cheese, or a spiced plum butter to offset the creaminess of your brie.
While talking about cheese, why not give your grilled cheese a more gourmet feel, and spread some on one slice of the bread?
Add a teaspoon or so to your home-made vinaigrette to add a sweet fruity twinge. Our pepper jelly is great for that.
Instead of a heavy topping like maple syrup or chocolate spread on your crepe, use your favorite flavor of jam instead.
Bake cookies! Make thumbprint cookies (find recipe here), Linzer cookies, or add a layer of our strawberry jam between two chocolate chip cookies for a sinful treat.
If you want a sweet treat that is also healthy, yogurt and a spoonful of jam is a great option. We love our black and blue flavor for that.
In a similar manner, jam works well as a topping for your oatmeal.
If you thin your jam down with some water, you will get a great syrup that you can freeze as popsicles
Does K's contain sugar?
Sugar is the key part of preserves: it's what allows them to be, well, preserved, and helps keep micro-organisms away. (Along with lemon juice and a regulated hot-fill process). A little bit enhances the flavor of the fruits used, and preserves their color, too. With that said, K's jam-making process involves a lot less added sugar than most of the brands which are commonplace in supermarkets. The average jam will have between 55% to 100% sugar content, and even supposedly low-sugar choices have between 45% to 55%. We're really proud of the sugar content of most of our jams being only 30% (marmalade and pepper jelly need a little bit more): we don't need to cover up poor ingredients with loads of mindless sugar.
We exclusively use pure Cane Sugar, which keeps the color and taste of our fruit un-compromised.
Why is K's more expensive than that what I find in the supermarket?
As mentioned above, we're not big on adding loads of sugar to our product. We prefer to pack our jars full of fruit instead, but fruit is more costly to buy, pound for pound, than sugar; our prices have to reflect the choice that we've made in the proportions of these two ingredients. We also try to source fruit from local farmers as much as possible.
Equally, we put a lot of work into each jar: everything - from cutting fruit, to cooking to jarring - is done by hand, respecting and reflecting the traditional methods of jam making that have occurred since the twelfth century. We work really hard on our product and enjoy the intimate relation we have with it, but this also means, in order to get by, our prices have to be a bit higher than the mass produced product you can get in the supermarket.
Is it natural?
Put simply, yes. Nothing artificial. No preservatives, no food colors, no corn syrup. Our products are also vegetarian, lactose-free, and gluten-free.Does K's contain pectin?
Yes: it's an important ingredient to ensure an unctuous, consistent texture to our preserves, and with it we don't have to cook the fruit down to a mush. Pectin occurs naturally in fruits - for example, in the skin of apples, or citrus fruit. This doesn't mean we add pectin gratuitously though: in our marmalades, the amount pectin naturally occurring in orange peel makes it that we don't need to add any extra
What's the shelf life of my product?
The official line is one year. (Jam enthusiasts will probably know that the unopened jar can keep a lot longer) Our jars are vacuum packed, preventing any bacteria from getting in and spoil your jam. Lighter colored jams might darken somewhat over time, but this is part of the aging process, rather than meaning that your jam is spoiled.An open jar will keep - if you avoid any contamination with crumbs or other food stuffs, so keep your spoons clean! - for about three months.