Raspberry Jam Other Food Drinks - A raspberry flavored Jam. Jam is a type of fruit preserve. It is a way of preserving fruit by boiling it with sugar to make an unfiltered jelly. The use of cane sugar to make jam and jelly can be traced back to the 16th century when the Spanish came to the West Indies, where they preserved fruit, but the Greek technique of preseving quinces by boiling them in honey was included in the Roman cookery book associated with the name Apicius.