THE SMALL STORY OF JAM

Of course, large production of jams appeared in France, country of the gluttons. But as sugar is needed to make jam we have to wait the time of Crusades. Before the way to give a taste of sugar was the honey. It is said Alexander the Great heard about “the reed which gives honey without bees”; people of Negros recognizes the sugar cane, I think…It is so expensive that only the nobility can afford sweet meals and only for sweet and sour dishes.First page of the treatise of Nostradamus

As for many matters, Europe discovered the sugar and jams through the Arabian world. But at the beginning jams (confitures in French) was called “letuaires” which means medicine to lick. Doctor Nostradamus himself (1555) wrote a jam treatise where sugar and fruits are considered as a medicine.Then, from medicine, jam becomes a greed. When the source of sugar in Europe changes from sugar cane to sugar beet, in the 19th century, sugar is low cost and jam extend everywhere.In France, in 2004, the annual production of jam is around 120 000 tons plus 30 000 tons home made. 35 types of fruits are used but 50% is strawberry and apricot jams. French people eats 2 kg of jam per year, just before English and German.

Another great name about jam is the french Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) who invented agronomy. He is the one who developed the production of silk with worms, introduced corn and extracted sugar from beet in France. A genius! In his book “Théâtre de l’agriculture et mesnage des champs“(more or less: Theater of agriculture and management of field) edited in 1600,  he writes about jam (translation of old french is not easy!): “With sugar, many and various fruits from trees and in the garden can easily preserve and can be conserved a very long time and keep beauty and goodness“. He considers “brown sugar is better than white sugar and less expensive“. He advices: “Do not hurry to make good jam” and explains how to “recycle jam which failed and withdraw sugar of old jams“. This gifted man was a real master “confiturier”.