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Confiture Information
WHAT'S A CONFITURE? SYLLABICATION: con·fi·ture We use this word to describe our unique fruit creations because they're not just jams and jellies. Our confitures can be used in a variety of dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The more creative you are, the more fun you'll have trying our confitures. Check out our recipes page to get your creative juices flowing with all the endless possibilities for our products. =============== SERVING SUGGESTIONS
=============== CONFITURES VS. JAMS It will probably come as no surprise to you to learn that -- as with so many aspects of commerce -- there are federal labeling laws governing what may be called “preserves" or "jams.” Here's the shocker: for a product to be labeled and sold in stores as a jam or preserve, it must contain a minimum of 55% sugar! It's hard to know for certain the origin of these regulations. They may have evolved from historical methods of food preservation. Both sugar and salt were, and continue to be, widely used to prevent all kinds of foods from degrading so that they can be consumed throughout the year. As a result, many people's taste buds have grown accustomed to lots of sugar. In fact, many came to associate the taste of preserves having a high sugar-to-fruit ratio with “quality.” Maybe our benchmark was our grandmother's preserves and jams, whose recipes indeed called for at least 50% sugar. Luckily, times have changed. Our understanding of food chemistry long ago made clear that having more sugar than fruit in preserves and jams isn't necessary for the product to be “safe” to eat year-round. In addition, beginning in the late 1950s, many began to understand that what we eat has a direct impact on our health, an understanding that has grown exponentially since then. Eating habits and tastes have shifted in the direction of using sugar in moderation. Curiously, though, neither the “jam” industry nor federal regulators have pressed for this outdated law to be updated to conform to our current understanding. Why? Here's our explanation. The present system works well for large food manufacturers, who think in terms of how cheaply they can make a product. The two main ingredients in preserves and jams are fruit and sugar, and sugar is by far the cheaper of the two ingredients. With large amounts of sugar, you can take poor quality fruit and make it taste “sweet,” creating the illusion of how the fruit might taste if you were eating it fresh. But in reality there's much more to tree-ripened fruit than just a sweet flavor – specifically, the complex mix of natural flavors you find in a piece of fruit that's been picked at its peak of ripeness. Many people haven't tasted these tastes that often; they're lost when fruit is picked for cosmetic perfection, usually well before it has ripened naturally, so it can be shipped thousands of miles and sit on a grocery store shelf for days if not weeks. What it lacks, in a word, is flavor. Jam makers compensate for this lack of flavor by adding sugar. And to make sure you don't know that you're buying more sugar than fruit, they use three or four different kinds of low-grade sweeteners so they can “accurately” list the fruit first on the ingredient list (don't take my word for it: next time you're in the grocery store, pick up a jar of preserves or jam and read the label). At High Desert Foods we think in terms of preserving fruit at the height of its natural flavor. We believe that if you don't pick the fruit at the peak of its ripeness, there's nothing you can add later to compensate. We start with terrific fruit picked at just its point of perfection, where its naturally developed sweetness blends with its other complex flavors to take your breath away and instantly remind you, “This is the real thing.” We make our confitures in small, hand-crafted batches, adding just enough organic sugar to ensure they will be safely preserved for use throughout the year. Our products are called confitures, a term that we can use without loading them up with all that extra sugar. We think you'll be able to easily tell the difference. But don't take our word for it. Taste them for yourself! =============== LOW CARB & GLYCEMIC INFORMATION ON OUR CONFITURES Because our confitures are made up primarily of fresh, organic fruit and very little sugar is added to them, they're a great addition to diets where sugar and carbohydrate intake are issues. Many diabetics have told us that they can enjoy our products as part of their overall diet. Unlike many diabetic and low carb food products, we use no artificial sweeteners, trans-fats, or any other artificial ingredients. We list diabetic exchange information for each of our products, on their individual nutrition pages. For more information on the diabetic exchange, see below. The Dietary Exchange System The dietary exchange system was created by the American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetes Association . Originally developed to help diabetics and people with chronic illnesses, the diabetic exchange system is also used for weight loss/management. This system is based on a completely balanced diet with foods from each of the major food groups. It's a sensible eating plan, so it can be followed for long periods of time. The dietary exchange system allows you to easily monitor your calorie intake and portion sizes and the amounts of calories from protein, fat and carbohydrates. The Groups
How It Works
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