Fruit especially a botanical fruit; a "nut" is any hard, oily, and shelled plant product; and a "vegetable" is any savory or less sweet plant product. However, in botany, a "fruit" is the ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, a "nut" is a type of fruit and not a seed, and a "seed" is a ripened ovule. Examples of culinary "vegetables" and nuts that are botanically fruit include corn, cucurbits (e.g., cucumber, pumpkin, and squash), eggplant, legumes (beans, peanuts, and peas), sweet pepper, and tomato. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chili pepper, are fruits, botanically speaking. In
Fruit preserves can be easily verified by searching the listings under "fruit spread" on common web sites, such as those of Amazon or Walmart, or to look at the ingredient list and nutritional information on specific fruit spread products. Jam typically contains both the juice and flesh of a fruit or vegetable, although one cookbook defines it as a cooked and jelled puree. The term "jam" refers to a product made of whole fruit cut into pieces or crushed, then heated with water and sugar to activate its pectin before being put into containers: Pectin is mainly D-galacturonic acid connected by α