How much does making jam cost?
30 October 2020
I like making jam. It’s completely due to my grandmothers’ influence. Considering it is a calorific experience, I don’t even eat jam that often. That doesn’t stop me, however.
Ingredients:
- 1 unit of Fruit
- 1 unit of Sugar
- Pectin (and/or lemon juice)
- Herbs/spices if feeling fancy
Method:
- Soak fruit in sugar
- Boil mixture, add pectin, boil a bit more
- Sterilize the jam jar
- Pour jam in jar, let cool.
But what does it cost to make jam?
- Fresh fruit vary in price from apples costing at £1.50 per kg to raspberries costing £12.00 per kg. For argument’s sake, I’m making strawberry jam at £5 per kg
- A pack of white sugar costs £ 0.64 per kg
- Pack of pectin, £1.25 (6 sachets) so £0.21 per kg
- Fresh mint £0.70
- Litre big jam jar £4
Although the ratio of fruit to sugar is roughly 1:1, throughout the process fruit water boils away and you can reduce the amount of sugar used so I am not going to be extremely specific end weight product.
All things considered, including the hidden cost of the jam jar, I am spending at least £10 to make a kilo of jam. This of course does not include the labour, the gas/electricity I use while making it and the research I have to do beforehand to be able to make good jam. What does the market say to all this?
You can go out and buy a standard(ish) 340 gr jam of basically any common fruit, with different brands for different price brackets.
| Bracket | Price per 1kg | Notable ingredients (Anything else apart from fruit, sugar, pectin, citric acid) |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap | £0.60 to £2.20 | Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Acidity Regulator: Sodium Citrates, Sweetener (Sorbitol) |
| Middle shelf | £4.70 to £6.80 | Acidity Regulator: Sodium Citrates |
| Upmarket | £7.80 to £8.90 | Brown sugar, concentrated juices of other fruits (I presume added as flavour buffer), elaborate jar design, jam is now labelled as ‘conserve’ |
| Specialty | £14.50 | mixed flavours (champagne, rhubarb), the fruit variety is named, elaborate jar design |
If making jam at home, we should be aiming to make something ‘upmarket’ quality or it is more or less waste of time and money. The only ‘real’ way to win against the market is on flavour. Another one is to acquire raw fruit material for free (looking at you neighbors that don’t pick their apple tree).
The thing is. In order to compare to ‘the market’ requires the market to exist. My grandparents who influenced me, did not always have either the choice or the access to huge corporate international web that ‘the market’ is today. They lived through the time of quotas and scarcity that, they hoped I would never see. Preserves and conserves were a huge part of ensuring food diversity and availably throughout winter/spring.
So, it doesn’t matter how much jam is really worth. I just really like making it.
