The biggest difference between jelly, jam, and preserves is how much of the original fruit is used to make them. Jelly has the smoothest consistency and is made by crushing a fruit and discarding the solid chunky leftovers. This leaves only the fruit juice, which is then mixed with pectin and heated to form the gelatinous spread. Jam is similarly made by crushing a fruit, but this spread leaves in most of the solid pieces of the fruit’s fibers and seeds (if they’re small enough and safe to consume) to give it a spreadable consistency. Of the three, preserves use the most of the fruit and are simply chopped smaller pieces of fruit that are mixed with sugar to keep them fresh and combined with a syrup or jam to contain them.