Melissa: 00:00

Hi, y'all. For this month's rerelease, we are going to do an episode from two and a half years ago, which is crazy.

Jam: 00:07

Wow.

Melissa: 00:08

All about jam, but not this kind of jam, the kind of jam that you eat, and jellies and the polymer underneath all of that.

Jam: 00:17

That was super fascinating. I did not remember very much of this one, and so having to relearn about it is super cool, super fun, very everyday. I'm a huge fan Of jams and jellies and preserves.

Melissa: 00:27

Mhmm.

Jam: 00:28

So if you are or if you're not, you'll still find it interesting, I'm pretty sure.

Melissa: 00:32

Yeah. And it'll be a good setup for, next week's episode that also is about food.

Jam: 00:37

Nice.

Melissa: 00:38

Hope you enjoy the show. Yay, chemistry.

Jam: 00:41

Happy listening.

Melissa: 00:52

Hey. I'm Melissa.

Jam: 00:53

I'm Jam.

Melissa: 00:54

And I'm a chemist.

Jam: 00:55

And I'm not.

Melissa: 00:56

And welcome to chemistry for your life.

Jam: 00:58

The podcast that helps you understand the chemistry Of your everyday life.

Melissa: 01:02

Okay, Jam. Today, we're going to do a podcast for Jam for you about jam.

Jam: 01:11

Oh, nice. So it's about me also?

Melissa: 01:14

Or Not about you. About jam and jelly.

Jam: 01:18

Oh, okay. Gotcha.

Melissa: 01:21

And this topic was requested from our very own Jam Robinson. Not, I think, because it was his name, but I think it, you know, was nice also that it played into it. Yeah.

Jam: 01:34

And I really wish I'd requested it while we're still recording, but it was after we recorded our previous episode. My brain was going. Questions were popping up. The little scientist in my brain was thinking, hey. But what about this?

Jam: 01:47

What about that? And so I formally requested this topic, but did not expect to be so soon, and I don't I didn't even know until right now that We were doing that. So It

Melissa: 02:01

was really fun, and I just sometimes will briefly look at topics to see how hard or easy the research will be, and this research was very easy. It presented itself very quick, and it was very fun. So that's why I went for it.

Jam: 02:15

Very cool.

Melissa: 02:15

Thanks. Sometimes requests will come in that I do a quick search, and I think this is gonna be hard. And then they maybe don't present themselves as easily because I'm also a graduate student, and this is unfortunately a side hobby. So I can't put the time and energy into those harder topics as I wish I could. You know what I mean?

Jam: 02:35

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

Melissa: 02:37

So if you're wondering why your request hasn't been made into a podcast yet, it's very possible that I don't have time to do the research on it at this time. But summer's coming up, and I'm gonna graduate one day. So hope is still on the horizon

Jam: 02:49

for you.

Melissa: 02:50

I do have a list of them of the requested episodes. So, well, let's talk first about what jams and jellies and all of that are. So

Jam: 03:00

Okay.

Melissa: 03:01

This actually what I'm about to tell you is just from a Google search.

Jam: 03:05

So I

Melissa: 03:05

don't know if this is official, but I think it's all colloquial, so I don't know if I'm gonna find an official source on this first part. So what I learned from Google is that jelly is made with strained fruit juices, and it's clear.

Jam: 03:20

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Melissa: 03:22

Jam is made with fruit pieces in it, but it's, like, mashed up or pureed or chopped up. Okay. Okay. Preserves have large pieces of fruit.

Jam: 03:37

Okay. So it's kind of a little bit along the lines of what I'd heard colloquially, I guess.

Melissa: 03:43

Yes. Well, that's just where I looked this up. I couldn't find any real sources about it. Mhmm. And then marmalade is made with citrus fruits.

Jam: 03:53

Okay. I never knew what Made marmalade marmalade, really. I just was like, it's another kinda spread.

Melissa: 04:01

Yeah.

Jam: 04:01

You know what I mean?

Melissa: 04:03

But it's citrus. So but everything I found indicated that they were all the same chemistry, and we've just made our own little delineations based on how much fruit is in them. So it seems like the chemistry is the same, but the amount of actual fruit pieces is what determines if it's jam, jelly, or preserves, and then if it's citrus fruit versus non citrus fruit, it's marmalade category.

Jam: 04:30

Got it. Okay. Interesting.

Melissa: 04:33

I think this might be different for different countries. So these are, like, the American definitions. Because I know sometimes when I'm watching Great British a shake bake off. They use gelatin sheets to, like, set jelly.

Jam: 04:45

Mhmm.

Melissa: 04:45

And we would call that Jell O. So I kind of I wanna also say that this is the American definition of these words from Google, not an outside source. I think it's just what we decide to call them.

Jam: 04:58

Yeah. And I feel like depending on the country, I've felt like they maybe use one of the words for multiple things that we might use different words for. Like, Jam might be the word they use for lots of kinds of spreads instead of just what we use it for. The that's Right. Been one of my thoughts too.

Jam: 05:16

And it has maybe even contributed a little to my confusion about it. Like, which is which? But I guess it's not, like, A real clear, like, scientific rule about which one's which.

Melissa: 05:28

I could not find one. In in all of these things, they mostly just said jams or jellies and just kind of left it at that and then mostly used jam from there on out. One of my sources was from the Royal Society of Chemistry, which is not an American source, and so they just said jam the whole time.

Jam: 05:45

Okay. Got it.

Melissa: 05:47

But I think the chemistry is kind of the same no matter what. So from here on out, we're just gonna talk about jam, and it's gonna probably apply broadly to all of these categories.

Jam: 05:57

Nice.

Melissa: 05:58

If you're a food chemist out there and you know these definitions and you'd like to reach out to me to talk about these definitions, I'd love that. I think that was so fun, so please feel free to do that. So before we get into the topic, I do want you to take some time to think about if you know what jam is or what you think jam is so that you can kind of get in the jam mindset. I mean, you always are because you're jamming. But So jam, take a minute, and listeners at home, take a minute to think about what you think the chemistry of jam his.

Jam: 06:57

Okay. So the things that are coming to mind for me are The recent you know, just last week, maple syrup episode. And it's part of what made me think of the question asking about Jam in the 1st place was just that you talked about how you boil down a lot of maple sap to make maple syrup. And And so that made me wonder, is that what's going on with jams and jellies? And then so I thought maybe that would be it, and that would explain It.

Jam: 07:29

Because I really don't know how much it how much, like, fruit juice and fruit stuff it takes to make some jammer jelly. And you talked about how that process creates a lot of different, reactions that go on. And so I wondered if that was what was happening. 1, you're boiling down, so there's a lot Mhmm. Of, like, water, I guess, you could say that that that Gets is removed because of it turns into steam.

Melissa: 08:00

Right.

Jam: 08:01

But if it isn't like maple syrup and it's not quite as complicated as, like, lots of different chemical reactions are happening. If it's just as simple as something that is losing lots of its water as you boil it down, I was thinking maybe if that happens enough that the consistency would of it would change and get much more stuck together as the water is going away, and then the molecules maybe have a chance to, like, Form a little bit more like a solid where there's less room for them to move between each other. But that's all that's really come to mind in the quick thinking time.

Melissa: 08:40

Okay. Well, I'd say that that last part is the closest.

Jam: 08:44

Okay.

Melissa: 08:45

And I'm also gonna say, I I love hearing your thoughts on it because studies show that if you think about the answer before you're given the answer, you're more likely to internalize it. So you're taking part in the learning process.

Jam: 08:58

Nice.

Melissa: 08:59

So that's great. But I think it's less like maple syrup Okay. And more like a mixture between what happens to eggs when we cook them in diapers.

Jam: 09:11

Woah. Who would have thought?

Melissa: 09:14

I know. Isn't that weird?

Jam: 09:16

Yeah. That's crazy.

Melissa: 09:18

So for those of you who have not listened to those episodes, go back and check them out. They're 2 of my favorites. The boiling eggs one, Jam came up with one of the best best analogies I think he's ever come up with. So go check that one out. And we had a fun guest on that one, Jason Kress.

Jam: 09:32

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:33

So definitely check that one out. But that means that there's something in jam

Melissa: 09:44

that is a polymer.

Jam: 09:45

Oh, man. Dude, that's awesome.

Melissa: 09:49

I know. When I was researching this, I almost texted you and said, no spoilers, but I kinda wish I'd become a polymer chemist. Oh, dang it. But then I knew it would be a spoiler, so I kept it secret, but, man, there's polymers everywhere.

Jam: 10:04

Interesting. I guess it does seem kind of Polymer like inconsistency, but I I would not have guessed that just because that is not the only thing that makes it a polymer. But weird, dude.

Melissa: 10:18

I know. So for those of you who are newer to the show, there's lots of episodes where I've talked about polymers. But a quick review, a polymer is a large molecule made up of smaller repeating subunits. So a good way to think about this is, like, a necklace is made up of beads that are repeating different beads. You know, pearl necklace is a pearl, a pearl, a pearl, a pearl, a pearl, a pearl, but altogether, it's a necklace.

Melissa: 10:45

So a polymer is like a molecule, a molecule, a molecule, a molecule, a molecule that are all bound together in a chain, in that those little repeating molecules over and over combined to make a polymer. And Jam came up with the beautiful way of phrasing it as a molecule that's made up of small molecules, which I love. So that's the quick review of a polymer, and there's lots of conversations we've had about polymers if you wanna go check them out. But today is kind of gonna be a review of some things you've already learned, but kind of in a new application.

Jam: 11:23

Okay.

Melissa: 11:23

So if It's not gonna be your brand new traditional chemistry lesson that we've had a few times. It's gonna be a review like, a review before your exam. A review doesn't Okay. We're gonna review some things that we've done before. So the thing that is a polymer in fruit is pectin.

Melissa: 11:45

Okay. Pectin is in the cell walls of fruit. It helps give fruit their shape and when this, I think, is amazing. When fruit gets old and mushy, that's because there's an enzyme that breaks down pectin so it no longer can hold shape.

Jam: 12:07

Oh, wow.

Melissa: 12:10

So pectin gives fruit its shape, but it also gives your jams and jellies its shape. Okay. Sopectin, like eggs, can form a nice three-dimensional network. And like diapers, in that network, it has trapped water molecules or fruit juice molecules or whatever. Uh-huh.

Melissa: 12:35

So we talked about how eggs have these long stretched out their proteins are polymers also, and they'll be long and stretched out. And then because of heat. They're able to stretch out and cross link and form and what's known as an aggregate, which basically means they clump together.

Jam: 12:50

Mhmm.

Melissa: 12:52

And JAM had the beautiful analogy of Christmas lights. If they're all rolled up separately like proteins normally are, they don't get intertangled, and they're easy to organize and move around. But if you just throw them all into, like, a tub or something and then you try to pull them out next year, you'd grab 1 string, and it brings the whole entire mass of Christmas lights with it. Beautiful analogy. So like the proteins in eggs, pectin would be a long stretched out chain, And then I'll talk about why this happens, but it starts to aggregate together.

Melissa: 13:29

It can begin to form a aggregate or cross link bind together sort of bunch up. And when it does that, in any of the small areas that are left between the molecules, it sort of traps the solvent and absorbs it into the gel. Absorb is not the best word, but it will keep the solvent, the water, the fruit juice, whatever is present already in the mixture trapped in its aggregate that it's formed. Uh-huh. And that part is what reminds me of diapers because they hold the water molecules in their matrix similarly.

Jam: 14:06

Okay. Got it. Got it.

Melissa: 14:09

So that's where I see jams and jellies being a mixture of egg chemistry and diaper chemistry.

Jam: 14:18

Interesting. Dude, that is crazy.

Melissa: 14:22

But that's not to say you should eat diapers. That's not safe. Don't do that. It's just similar on the molecular level. So that's the basics of what jam is Uh-huh.

Melissa: 14:33

And what makes it gel up. But I wanna talk about how we get that process going. Okay.

Jam: 14:38

Yeah. That's what I'm interested in too. I don't really know much about that either.

Melissa: 14:42

1st, you have to get the pectin out of the fruit, so to speak.

Jam: 14:48

Okay.

Melissa: 14:50

So pectin already exist in the cell walls of the plant, so that's why we heat it, and we'll mash it up. It'll sort of bring that out of the walls of the plant so that it can be free to move around. Uh-huh. So that's the first thing you have to do to make jam and jelly is get that pectin. And then the second thing you have to do is make it curl up into its aggregate.

Melissa: 15:15

Curl isn't the best phrase, but I imagine it goes from its natural shape, which is long and stretched out and just sort of bunched up Uh-huh. With all the other cords like the Christmas light analogy. So to do that, you have to change the chemistry of the pectin molecule. And this is the meat of your chemistry lesson today. I mean, all this has been very chemistry heavy, but this is the newest con like, the only new concept we're really gonna get for you today.

Jam: 15:44

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 15:47

Pectin is in its natural form, unlike proteins, it's already stretched out into longer chains.

Jam: 15:54

Okay.

Melissa: 15:56

And the reason it sort of takes that elongated shape is because some of the functional groups and we've talked about functional groups before. They're just groups of atoms that are classified into sort of subsections because they have similar functions as each other. You know? So anything that has as an oxygen and a hydrogen is called an alcohol functional group, and alcohol functional groups behave similarly no matter what molecule they're on pretty much. So one of the functional groups in pectin is negatively charged.

Melissa: 16:30

So that means it has an excess of electrons, which are negative. And just like when you have 2 magnets and you try to push them together, they're sort of gonna repel each other if they're on the the same negative side, that happens in pectin. The different negatively hard functional groups are going to repel each other, so pectin's not easily gonna fold in on itself.

Jam: 16:57

Oh, interesting.

Melissa: 17:00

So that's why it stays in a more elongated shape. Uh-huh. And that's why to make jam and jelly, you don't just need fruit. You oftentimes also need to add acid. To you might see a recipe where there's a little bit of lemon juice mixed into the jam recipe.

Melissa: 17:25

Oh. Or you might be using a fruit that's already acidic. Mhmm. To, like, citrus fruits probably don't need an addition of acid because they have a lot of acid already.

Jam: 17:36

Right. Right.

Melissa: 17:39

So first, we've isolated the pectin, and then we've used acid which is going to neutralize those negative charts and keep pectin from repelling itself as much as it did before.

Jam: 17:54

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Melissa: 17:56

So that it can start to mix in with itself more, start to form that aggregate, start to form good to the other pectin molecules as well. Yeah. And then there's 1 more thing we have to account for, the last step, so to speak. Uh-huh. And that's that pectin likes water.

Melissa: 18:18

It is hydrophilic. It's water loving. It can easily bind to water. To learn more about hydrophilic and hydrophobic, check out our episodes on soap, the very first episode we ever did, and the episode about COVID nineteen with soap. We talk about hydrophilic and hydrophobic a lot.

Melissa: 18:33

Mhmm. So pectin loves water, and that water being all around it will keep it from cross linking and forming the aggregate that it wants to

Jam: 18:45

form. Okay.

Melissa: 18:49

So then we mix in something that's going to like water even more. It acts as a bodyguard or an interferer. I don't know what the sports term is for this, but it's going to play blocker or defenseman or something like that where we're we're basically trying to keep the water from getting to the pectin. Okay. I I

Jam: 19:12

don't know.

Melissa: 19:12

It's 4 thing better than you, and so I don't have

Jam: 19:15

I can help there, but I know what you mean.

Melissa: 19:19

Yeah. I I feel like I know it somewhere. Is it blocker? I don't know. But this is gonna be the enforcer.

Melissa: 19:26

They're gonna be a bodyguard. They're gonna keep the water molecules as much as they can away from the pectin. Uh-huh. And that thing is sugar. Okay.

Melissa: 19:37

Sugar likes water. Sugar can bind with water even more easily than pectin can. Uh-huh. So by adding in the sugar, it gets some of that hydration, some of that water away from the pectin molecules Mhmm. So they can more easily find and interact with one another.

Jam: 19:52

Got it.

Melissa: 19:55

So those are the 3 things that are required to form the aggregate. We need to get the pectin out of the fruit. Mhmm. We need to neutralize or acidify those groups that are going to be repelling each other.

Jam: 20:09

Mhmm.

Melissa: 20:10

And we need to get some of the water away so that the pectin can find itself and each other and form, I believe, it's cross linking, but I don't know if that has a specific definition or something, but form groups of molecules that come together Yeah. Known as an aggregate. And in that aggregate, is trapping the water and the juice inside the network that forms just like we talked about with diapers. And that's why we have a delicious, tasty gel that is jam or jelly.

Jam: 20:43

Dude, nice. That's crazy.

Melissa: 20:47

I know. Isn't that amazing?

Jam: 20:49

Yeah. I did not expect it to have that many things going on there.

Melissa: 20:53

I know. And a lot of that is stuff we've talked about in previous episodes, but it's a brand new application. And I had no idea that pectin was responsible for keeping the shape of the fruit, and that an enzyme would break down the pectin, and that's why it got mushy over time. That was amazing. I knew that didn't existed, but I had no idea what it was or the role that it played in the fruit already.

Melissa: 21:15

Yeah. Is it does this explain at all this might be a totally separate deal about why Jam

Jam: 21:20

and jelly can last so long. Is I mean, I could guess one part of it is that the process is that you heat it up, And so that might kill, you know, stuff that's in there that that makes fruit, you know, ripen and mold and and stuff like that. But I I've always wondered, like, why can't it last last so long? You know? That's, like, the word

Melissa: 21:45

no idea. That's a good question.

Jam: 21:48

The word preserves made you think of, like, that that was kind of where it came from. It's like, oh, these this fruit is not gonna last forever, so we'll Let's go ahead and preserve it.

Melissa: 22:00

Oh, a 100%. That is what I think too, but I don't know for a fact if that's. I don't know.

Jam: 22:06

Yeah.

Melissa: 22:07

I I would probably need to do a whole other episode on that.

Jam: 22:10

Interesting. Well, there's still plenty here, so Even this afternoon. Yeah. Dang, dude.

Melissa: 22:16

So do you wanna take a stab at going back over that, going through the chemistry, and then I'll talk about a few other uses for pectin?

Jam: 22:25

Yes. I'd love to. So I don't have a good analogy For this, I mean, the Christmas lights, one that we've kind of already been using around, proteins and stuff helpful, but also this has too many layers to it for, like, one thing to work, I think.

Melissa: 22:42

Yeah. Definitely. So

Jam: 22:47

Pectin is already just part of the fruit, and it's one of the Biggest things that we really need to work for us to make the jam have the shape and consistency that we want, basically. And so Right. Seems like so many of the

Melissa: 23:05

things that we're we are about

Jam: 23:06

to include in this concoction to make jam is really just to get the pectin to do what we want it to do. Right.

Melissa: 23:15

A 100%. We're just bullying that pectin into our will.

Jam: 23:19

So the first thing is just

Melissa: 23:20

to get it free because it's very integrated into the fruit, Part of its cell walls Mhmm.

Jam: 23:24

And its overall structure and everything. So we just decide to destroy the fruit and just Mash the heck out of it, and that starts to be able to free up the pectin to not be, stuck doing a job, I guess, you could say. And

Melissa: 23:44

Right.

Jam: 23:44

And then It wants to kind of repel from other chunks of pectin, I guess, from other, strands of pectin Because of its, elect its negativity because it has a lot of electrons.

Melissa: 24:03

Mhmm. So Right.

Jam: 24:05

Then it's like, okay. How can we get you guys to not be so to hate each other so much? If we gave y'all some Acid, would you get along? And they're like, oh, yeah. We'd love acid.

Jam: 24:17

But it's because acids if I remember correctly, acids have basically a lack of electrons, but they want electrons. Right?

Melissa: 24:29

Yes.

Jam: 24:30

Okay. So they come in, and they're like, guys guys guys, everybody's got too many electrons. Guess who wants them? Me. I want the electrons, please.

Jam: 24:40

And so lemon juice or or some other acid or something I guess if the fruit juice the fruit you're mashing itself is acidic And you start to have juice come out of the fruit as you're smashing it, it might help the situation on its own, And then allows that pectin to start interacting with itself and not repel from other pectins, Which we want because we want them to start getting all tangled and and make these, Congregates. Right?

Melissa: 25:16

Mhmm. I think they're called aggregates.

Jam: 25:18

Aggregate. Dang it. To make Irias. I was thinking

Melissa: 25:23

Well, it congregates accurate because they do congregate.

Jam: 25:27

Yes. That's true. I was thinking about, Conjugation from a few episodes ago and a few times. Oh, yeah. Mixed up.

Jam: 25:34

Okay. Aggregate. Sorry about that. And

Melissa: 25:38

That's okay. That's part of the learning process.

Jam: 25:42

But they do congregate. But, And okay. Let me think. Oh, Oh, yes. We want them to start being able to interact together.

Jam: 25:57

But one problem is that pectin really likes Water. Right? And so if we have water in the picture, it might not interact with other pectins As much as we want. Right. And won't form that nice aggregate that starts to help give the Consistency we want and get us toward that more jammy, consistency.

Jam: 26:26

So We have to put something in there that water that will basically kind of pull the water away from and being able to go to it. Something that

Melissa: 26:40

Right.

Jam: 26:40

Is more is gonna either be attractive to the water or just take over the water or something like that And Mhmm. Get between them. Basically, you break them up, and like a chaperone at a middle school dance. And so he throws some sugar in there, and that allows The that pulls the water away and then lets the pectin do what we've been trying to do the whole time is cross link. Mhmm.

Jam: 27:14

Form an aggregate that starts to be able to be basically like a Container polymer thing like the diaper polymer that can sort of hold The liquid in it or something. Mhmm. And Yeah. If it's happening Yeah. If it's happening a lot at the microscopic level it starts to be able to make this the consistency of this thing start being more Jammy and less just straight fruit juice liquid mash stuff.

Melissa: 27:50

Mhmm. Perfect. That was a great explanation. I think you did really well.

Jam: 27:56

Is that everything? I feel like there was so much, but did I miss anything?

Melissa: 27:59

That was everything. Yeah. No. That was it. We first got the pectin out.

Melissa: 28:03

We then acidified the pectin, and you explained acids and what they did even better than I did. So that was great. I'm glad you did that because I forgot to. And then you finished it up with finally with when we draw the water away, it forms the aggregate and traps that water and gel inside it. The water and juice inside it to make the gel.

Jam: 28:22

Nice.

Melissa: 28:24

Great job. I think this is really fun. I had a great time learning about this. I got so excited when I found out that pectin was a polymer. Because you can buy packets of pectin Mhmm.

Melissa: 28:37

To add to your jams to make it set faster. So that was really exciting.

Jam: 28:41

Interesting.

Melissa: 28:42

So I was very excited. Yes. And there's different amounts of pectin in fruits at different stages of ripeness because the the enzyme starts to break them down over time. So really the most pectin is in a slightly underripe fruit.

Jam: 28:55

Okay. Gotcha.

Melissa: 28:58

So you can supplement that pectin. I guess they just figured out a way to isolate it chemically, and they sell it in little packets.

Jam: 29:03

Uh-huh. Wow. That's impressive.

Melissa: 29:05

And I think jam sugar in other parts of the world has pectin in it as well. There's sometimes they sell the sugar and the pectin mixed together.

Jam: 29:15

Interesting.

Melissa: 29:17

That's better than buying a pack of the pectin because then you just don't have to measure out how much pectin you need to use. So I wish I lived in a part of the world where they sold jam sugar.

Jam: 29:27

Yeah. Do you know what's interesting too is that this has enough there that makes me realize, like a few other things we've talked about, that this is the kind of chemistry that people have stumbled into doing for so so long because so much of it is Able to be figured out on its own or happens naturally without us having to know about it. So, like, if you had a pretty acidic fruit, then that part will be taken care of already. And

Melissa: 29:56

Yes.

Jam: 29:57

Just stuff like that 100%. That made me think about about that that we talked about before.

Melissa: 30:03

1 person

Melissa: 30:04

or one resource that

Melissa: 30:06

I used was a podcast. It's the chemistry world podcast that is put out by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and they do short snippets, like 6 minutes long, of chemistry information. It's pretty dense. I think, someone who already has a background in science would probably appreciate it a little bit more, but anyone could listen to it and learn from it. They just don't break things down quite as much as we do.

Melissa: 30:32

Uh-huh. And they said that the 1st person to isolate pectin was at 18/20 by a French chemist, but we've been making jams for 100 of years Yeah. Before they had done that. Yeah. So I thought that was really interesting.

Melissa: 30:49

Another fun fact is that Marie Curie liked to make jam, which absolutely makes sense to me because she is a

Jam: 30:55

chemist. Nice.

Melissa: 30:57

I learned about that from an article in the National Geographic, I believe. I thought that was a fun tidbit. It's also used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics because of the gel that it can make, but it's not dangerous. It's nontoxic. It I mean, it could be toxic in the right setting or the right amounts.

Melissa: 31:17

I don't know. But if we can ingest it safely in Jam, then that's a good option for both cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Uh-huh. So it's used in medicines to help coagulate blood if you're having problems with your blood clotting. It can be used as a carrier for drugs for controlled release applications.

Melissa: 31:39

And in cosmetics, it's used for gels. And it's also used for I got really excited about this because this is a new thing that I've learned in the process of the podcast, rheology modification. And rheology is the study of fluids and how they moved, and I learned that that existed and that there are people called rheologists Uh-huh. In our episode about cornstarch and water. So I was very excited that it's also used to in it's mostly in foods, but it'll change the consistency or the flow, the fluidity of different foods that food chemists are making.

Melissa: 32:15

So it's used for rheology modification as well.

Jam: 32:18

Wow. Interesting.

Melissa: 32:20

So jam and pectin can be used in all kinds of applications, and there's so much more to it than just sugar and fruit. There's chemistry all up in it. That was very exciting.

Jam: 32:31

Dude, awesome. I've definitely been interested in trying to make some Jamison Point. Never have gotten quite motivated enough, but maybe now I will, now that I feel like I know what's going on there. I saw it wouldn't look like a recipe or something, but that's pretty awesome.

Melissa: 32:46

I followed a recipe from Mary Berry from The Great British Bake off, and it was very straightforward. I think it would have been easier with jam sugar. Had to guesstimate on the pectin that I used, but I'm Have made raspberry jam, and it's gone great. And it's really tasty. I've enjoyed it a lot, so it's definitely doable.

Melissa: 33:05

We can have a masked up jam party with jam

Jam: 33:10

Yeah.

Melissa: 33:10

If you want.

Jam: 33:10

That'd be awesome. I have some peaches that I saved that I never made into jam that I froze, that I thought would be kind of cool, but I think sometimes you combine peaches with, like, another fruit, and that can be a cool Mixture of jam

Melissa: 33:24

Oh, yeah.

Jam: 33:24

Or whatever. But I keep I've just kept those, and I'm like, man, someday I'm gonna make those into jam.

Melissa: 33:32

Well, Well, thanks for asking that question. It made me very happy. And speaking of happy things, do you have something happy about your week you'd like to share with us?

Jam: 33:42

Yes. I do have a happy thing. Just yesterday, I got my 1st dose of the COVID nineteen vaccine. And

Melissa: 33:52

I'm so happy about this.

Jam: 33:54

Dude, yeah. Me too. And I I signed up a little while ago because I have some Some reasons that put me in the category of, like, slightly higher risk, but not not like a lot higher. And so I had been on the list for a while and had so many more people ahead of me, which was fine with me. I was like, I'll let our county Figure that out and decide when I'm whenever I should get it.

Jam: 34:18

You know? They'll I'll let them decide that. And Mhmm. Then I just got an email earlier this week, And I I don't know if they had some appointments for Yap or something like that, but they went ahead and and told me to come get it. And so I did yesterday.

Jam: 34:32

So I'm very excited, and I'm feeling great. So it's been, like in here in a couple hours, it'll have been 24 hours, and I still feel fine. Yay. Any symptoms or anything like that that sometimes people do have ex experienced, but I'm just pumped, dude, to, like, Be able to have some a little bit of normalcy back in my life once I get the 2nd dose especially. And it feel just a little less worried about this this virus, you know?

Melissa: 35:04

Yeah. And I'm excited for when we can record in person again.

Jam: 35:08

Dude, yeah. Seriously.

Melissa: 35:09

That's an exciting thing to look forward to.

Jam: 35:11

Yeah.

Melissa: 35:11

And I know that your wife is a frontline worker, so I feel like that's nice to have that line of defense around your baby. So that's good.

Jam: 35:19

Yeah. And she got both of her doses a while ago, through her, hospital system, but, we definitely felt like yeah. Then I mean, just one of us having it Doesn't make us feel quite as safe as both of us. So

Melissa: 35:34

yeah. Right. Yay. That's so exciting. Yeah.

Melissa: 35:39

Well, mine's not quite that exciting, but yesterday was my birthday.

Jam: 35:46

Yes.

Melissa: 35:47

So that's exciting.

Jam: 35:48

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 35:51

And last year, my birthday was not super fun. I mean, my friends are great, and it was awesome. But my mom was sick, and We had COVID starting, and the world seemed a very scary and unsure place, but I had a really nice day yesterday. They didn't have spring break, which is one of the best parts of my birthday now that I'm an adult that I get a whole wake awesome. You know?

Melissa: 36:17

I get it. It's for safety. There's a global pandemic, but it still was a really nice day. And my coworkers decorated my office Uh-huh. My little desk, and gave me a plant, and it's so cute.

Melissa: 36:29

And I got to have a safe social distance meetup with He already knows this, but with Jim and his wife.

Jam: 36:36

And I

Melissa: 36:37

also got a plant from that. So I'm very excited about my new plants. We can post a picture of them. And had a really nice day. Just got to enjoy some time, safe social distance time with some people that I really care about and get to eat good cake, and it was just a really it was a nice peaceful day.

Jam: 36:57

Dude, awesome. That's great. Very good.

Melissa: 37:00

So thanks for my little plant. I'm really excited about it. I'll post pictures of it online, and thanks for this question. I think it's it it was a really fun one. I had a great time researching it.

Melissa: 37:09

I'm gonna have so much more fun making jam now. And thanks to all of you listeners for coming and learning about the chemistry of jam today.

Jam: 37:16

And thank you for teaching us and for doing this topic so quickly. I was not expecting that when I asked you about that. Wilson and I Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life just like jam and jelly, but we want to hear from you. So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to On Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at chem for your life. That's chem, f o r, your life, to share your thoughts and ideas.

Jam: 37:40

If you like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life, and donate the cost of a cup of coffee. If you're not able to donate, you can still help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and rating and writing our review on Apple Podcasts. That also helps us to share chemistry with even more people.

Melissa: 38:00

This episode of chemistry for your life was created by Melissa Collini and Jame Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jame Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to a and s Navarro who reviewed this episode.