Wondering which fruits are best for making jam ? Maison Andrésy, your expert in fruit sourcing, gives you its selection criteria!
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In 2021, the Cassan family, who have run Maison Andrésy for 3 generations, decided that the motto of the family jam factory would be: “Sourcing the best of Nature to offer you the excellence of our know-how”.
For us, this means we’re committed to testing all fruit for jam, to select the best for the jam: the one with the best taste, pleasant texture, characteristic smell, and beautiful color!
And for over 70 years and 3 generations, Maison Andrésy has been testing fruit from France, Europe and sometimes even far away!
Are we experts in fruit sourcing? Without a doubt!
How can we prove it to you?
Here’s how we built up our sourcing expertise, over the course of our history and according to what criteria, and exclusively the top 5 best fruits for jam!
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
How did Maison Andrésy build its fruit sourcing expertise?
Fruit sourcing for Maison Andrésy: a heritage of respect for the fruit
When René Walther set up his confectionery business in Achères in 1952, then in Andrésy, sourcing was not an issue. At the time, the jam factory offered cooking expertise: every week, local fruit growers and farmers brought in their unsold fruit from markets or stores, for the jam factory to turn into jams for resale all year round.
Even then, respect for the fruit was essential: there was no question of mistreating the produce of neighboring farmers!
Then the orchards and farmland of the Ile de France gradually gave way to apartment blocks and urban areas, and local stores became increasingly rare… The confiturerie had to reinvent its trade!
In 1975, when Gérard Cassan – the father of the current generation of managers – started developing the confiturerie, he had to meet the expectations of new customers: hotels, palaces and major food brands looking for made-to-measure products. These customers are looking for taste, quality and consistency: they expect Andrésy Confitures to provide a service as impeccable as the one they provide their own customers!
For years, Gérard Cassan has been looking for the right sourcing partners, learning the criteria for selecting the ideal fruit for jam cooking, and recruiting the right people for quality control.
For years, all work revolved around selecting the best fruit for jam cooking, from the best terroir to develop all its qualities, and harvested at the best time.
And when his daughter Julia Cassan joined him in the jam-making business 40 years later, he was able to pass on a wealth of fruit sourcing know-how!
Custom made work
by Maison Andrésy
Tailor-made fruit sourcing: taking jam fruit expertise a step further
It was in the 1980s that Gérard Cassan established the Andrésy confiturerie as a specialist in made-to-measure work.
Palaces, hotel groups, French chefs, major food brands and even international partners are all looking for made-to-measure jam recipes and customized cooking, in their own jars and with their own labels.
It’s a real expertise developed by the family-run confiturerie.
What does this mean for fruit sourcing?
In addition to sourcing the best fruit for jam, Maison Andrésy will have to seek out small producers of certain varieties, or develop partnerships with new orchards, test new origins or recipes… The R&D department is born!
Stop! Didn't you know we make custom recipes?
Over 3 generations, we have developed a unique know-how: custom-made products. Do you need to create a unique recipe for a special occasion? Or an entire range for your brand?
How to choose the right fruit for jam? Maison Andrésy shares its selection criteria!
Sourcing the best fruit for jams: what does that mean?
Of course, you can make jam with any fruit you like.
But did you know that certain varieties of fruit, certain origins, lend themselves better to jam-making than others?
To make a “jam” is to: preserve fruit with sugar by bringing the fruit-sugar mixture to the boil, according to the time needed to achieve the jam.
To make a top-quality jam, your fruit must be :
are picked at the desired ripeness: at the right moment to develop the flavours characteristic of the variety
are all of the same size: the cooking time for small and large fruits is not the same!
are suitable for candying: the fruit-sugar exchange must be correct, and your fruit must be neither too fragile nor too tough-skinned.
can withstand candying: boiling lasts several minutes, sometimes up to 45 minutes, depending on the fruit variety.
Take strawberries, for example. In France, we’re lucky enough to grow many varieties: Ciflorette, Gariguette, Mara des Bois, Charlotte, etc. (Marmiton article).
Did you know that some are perfect for eating fresh, others for pies, others for baking?
For a jam that’s perfect in color, smell and taste above all: you need to choose a strawberry that will stand up to 90-degree sugar confisage, with a beautiful exterior and interior color, and lingering aromas after cooking.
Fruit selected by maison andrésy
“sourcing the best from nature”
So which fruits are ideal for making jam according to Maison Andrésy?
Top 5 fruits for jams
Here are some of our favorite fruits for our top-of-the-range artisan jams
1. The best strawberry for jam according to Maison Andrésy:
For us, there’s no better strawberry for jam than the Senga Sengana strawberry! A small, dark-red strawberry both inside and out, with a lovely sweet smell and, above all, an incomparable taste that lingers after jamming. This is the variety we’ve chosen for our Andrésy Gourmet strawberry jam.
2. The best apricot for jam according to Maison Andrésy :
Our favorite variety is the Oranger de Provence apricot: a firm-fleshed variety that retains its crunch after cooking, with a beautiful orange skin, a fruity taste with the expected hint of tartness, and a fresh scent.
We used this variety (and another, secret blend!) for the Andrésy Fruitée apricot recipe: for this recipe, even richer in fruit, and cooked with less sugar, we needed the best apricots!
3. The best orange for jam according to Maison Andrésy:
For the essential taste of “English marmalade”: the Seville orange. It’s a bitter Spanish orange, a seedless variety, grown the old-fashioned way and sourced directly from the grower.
We cook it with the pulp and zest for Andrésy Bio citrus jam.
4. The best raspberry for jam according to Maison Andrésy:
The raspberry is a difficult fruit to work with in jam because it is so fragile. We have sourced the Willamette variety, which has a good balance between fruitiness and acidity. It develops beautiful aromatic notes when jammed: with very sweet “bonbon” notes.
To enjoy willamette raspberries, you’ll find them in the Andrésy Fruitée range: a recipe even richer in fruit than our usual recipes, for the great taste of fruit!
5. The best clementine for jam, according to Maison Andrésy:
Clementines from Corsican orchards!
For those who don’t like citrus jam because of its bitterness, we strongly recommend you try our Corsican clementine jam from the Andrésy Gourmet range.
STOP! Do you like jam and cheese combinations?
Why not download our catalogs to discover all our recipes and formats?
So: would you like to create a recipe or an entire range of jams for your hotel, boutique or brand?
Call on our expertise in fruit sourcing and put the best of Nature into your jams 😉
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