 I've been doing home canning for about 13 or 14 years now, and have been making pea soup for 5 or 6 maybe. Typically, I cook the soup all day long in the slow cooker, then eat some and can the rest up. But I've often thought that it must be possible to just toss all of the raw ingredients into a mason jar, put the lid on, and can it up. The stuff should cook just fine while canning, especially since anything with meat in it like pea soup should be processed in a pressure canner at 15 psi.
So I finally got around to trying it - here's what I did.
WARNING!!! I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA IF THIS IS CONSIDERED SAFE!!!
That having been said, I've read quite a bit about home canning in the last 13 or 14 years, and I personally think it is.
For my first batch I just did 2 jars because I was not sure on the amount of peas to use. In one I used 1/4 cup, and in the other 1/3 cup. I just ate the one with 1/4 cup and it was an absolutely fantastic soup! Though a bit watery for a pea soup. So I'm going with 1/3 cup in the batch of 5 jars that I just put into the pressure cooker.
In each 500ml mason jar put :
- 1/4 or 1/3 cup split peas
- 3 pepper corns
- 2 smidgens salt (1/16th tsp)
- 2 heaping tablespoons chopped carrots
- 1/4 medium onion, chopped (will measure next time)
- 1/4 cup chopped pork
This will fill the jars about half way each.
OK, OK, I didn't use any beer in this recipe. Feel free to replace part of the water with beer if you like.
In my case I used a jar of the leftover pork from BSNBB. Remember the big smiling pig, and how I carted the carcass back home to can it all up? Well, I opened 1 x 1 litre jar and used almost all of it for 7 jars of soup. I first drained off the broth and saved it. Then I chopped the meat fairly small. I mixed the broth with about a litre of water which I thought would be about right for my use.
Now fill each jar to about the 2/3 level with the broth (or just water if that's all you have). Stir the contents well to mix. The peas will really stick to the bottom of the jar well, so be sure to stir them all about. Now fill the jars the rest of the way with your broth and/or water. I filled to just a hair above my normal fill level because carrots and onions both have a fair bit of air in them, and these are raw.
Now use your normal canning method - PRESSURE CANNER REQUIRED! Clean the jar rims, fit lids and rims, etc. I processed the jars for 25 minutes at 15 psi. You should process according to what you feel is safe.
The soup made with 1/4 cup peas was FANTASTIC if slightly watery for a pea soup! In my first batch I did just 2 jars - one with 1/4 cup peas and the other with 1/3 cup peas. Just to get an idea of which would be right. After opening and eating the one with 1/4 cup, I decided to go with 1/3 cup for the next batch of 5 jars.
I will have one made with 1/3 cup tomorrow for lunch and will report back on whether or not it was too thick.
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