The short, sweet, and sticky history of jam

A love potion, a digestive aid, an energy-giving snack, and a lavish royal treat. Jam has had many roles throughout history. At its core, jam is a condiment made from fruit, sugar, acid, and pectin. It’s closely related to—but not the same as—jellies (which are smoother) and preserves (which are chunkier). 

Today, jam is still a staple of the breakfast table. And while most of us might content ourselves with the homemade or store-bought variety, there are higher-end options, including Meghan, Duchess of Sussex's new strawberry jam, the first product of her American Riviera Orchard lifestyle brand that she sent out to influencer friends last week in individually numbered pots, like an art print. 

Regardless of whether you are a jam devotee or not, jam’s evolution from a simple method used to preserve fruit through the seasons to a cherished treat beloved by royalty reveals a rich—and at times, not so-sweet—history. 

A potted history of jam

It’s tricky to pinpoint the precise origins of jam, as jam-like foods have existed for centuries. “Preservation using honey or sugar was a common method in ancient times,” says food historian Mary-Anne Boermans, author of Great British Bakes and Deja Food, and a Great British Bake Off finalist.

However, Boermans says the earliest known recipe for jam is in the 'De Re Coquinaria' (The Art of Cooking) by Apicius, which was written in the 4th Century C.E. at the height of the Roman Empire. It features quince mashed in honey, which is quite unlike the jam we buy today.  

Honey was widely used to preserve food—and particularly fruit—globally, food writer Sarah B. Hood points out in her book, Jam, Jelly and Marmalade: A Global History. Honey was cheap, easy to find, and had some natural antibacterial properties. 

But sugar makes better jam. Sugarcane is native to Southeast Asia and it wasn’t until sugarcane was introduced to Persia at some point between the 3rd and 6th Century C.E. that jam as we know it today was made for the first time. 

“If one nation might be suggested as the inventor of jam and marmalade, Sasanian Persia, cultivating sugar by the 6th century AD, makes a good candidate,” Hood writes.

How jam spread

Several centuries later, the Crusades spread the use of sugar in cooking to medieval Europe and Britain for the first time, creating exotic new ways of preserving fruit and creating sweet treats—if you could afford it. 

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“Sugar was rare and expensive,” Boermans says. “So jam was the preserve of the rich and a status symbol.” 

Perhaps it is no surprise then that it became a royal condiment of choice. In the late 1600s, King Louis XIV of France showcased his jam as a luxury treat when serving guests at Versaille, with elaborate displays of jams and marmalades made from fruits grown in his private gardens. Another famous jam-loving royal was Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, after whom the Victoria sponge cake is named: it, of course, is layers of sweet sponge cake sandwiched together with strawberry jam. To this day, Buckingham Palace sells its own strawberry jam.

Beyond being a sweet treat, jam has had other purposes through history, too. Astrologer and seer Nostradamus penned a recipe for a "love jam" in his third book, the Traité des fardemens et confitures, or the 'Treatise on Make-Up and Jam' in 1555. He wrote that, if eaten by a woman, it would purportedly induce “a burning of her heart to perform the love act.”

To make this jam, you’d need mandrake apples, gratings from several minerals, and the blood of seven male sparrows. Food writer Hood notes other recipes for jams and marmalades that have been used medicinally throughout history, especially to treat digestive issues, too.

Sugar and the slave trade

Until the late 18th century, most people would have made jam-like preserves without sugar due to its vast expense.But the economics of jam changed as sugar became cheaper—a direct result of slave labor used in plantations byEuropean colonial powers in the Caribbean. 

“In many senses, jam is a colonial product—that’s where the sugar needed to make it originated,” says Rebecca Earle, a food historian, author and professor in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. The connection, she says, was originally made by historian Sidney Mintz, who pointed out that it was the unpaid labour of enslaved men and women that made sugar a staple rather than a luxury in the U.K.

“Working class people in the U.K. often ate sugar in the form of very sweet tea and bread spread with high-sugar and low-fruit jam,” Earle says. “In a sense, that was the fuel of the industrial revolution.” 

They may not have had many nutrients, but they had the calories needed to work. 

Status symbol

Today, you can buy jam in all sorts of varieties and flavors, from budget-friendly options to limited edition artisanal preserves a la Meghan. Jam is stuffed in doughnuts, spread on pastries, squashed between cookies, layered in desserts, and, of course, still served on kitchen tables and royal tables alike. 

Perhaps that combination of royal delicacy and home comforts is what drove Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to choose jam as her brand’s first product. 

While a luxury item, Meghan's jam taps into this sentiment, blending royal tradition with the simple pleasures of home.

As Boermans says, "nothing quite captures feelings of nostalgia of childhood as bread and butter spread with jam."