Good morning again my friends. I sure hope the title today doesn’t offend anyone because no one could have been a bigger dummy than I was, when Deb and I started canning our own vegetables, meats, fruits, etc.
Shoot, even Brian of the Canada Free Press suggested my login name to be… “imadummee!” So, one sees pretty quickly ole Dub probably ain’t “the sharpest knife in the drawer!” Even this is an understatement of considerable truth, because in regards to many, many, things…I am a dummy!
But first…congratulations to all those LSU “Tiger” fans out there. You guys took my Gators to the toolshed. This followed up a visit to the toolshed the previous week applied by the “Crimson Tide” folks.
Two weeks…two big losses, with those dern Auburn Tigers up next. Woe is me?
Today we’ll talk about canning peas. Deb and I enjoy doing it, but when they start coming in, you have some work cut-out for you. You simply have to get em while the getting’s good! It is time consuming, but well worth the effort. Those little jewels taste so good anytime actually, but especially during the winter months when there is no fresh supply available.
In reality, I know of only two people that don’t like peas, and they’re both neighbors who live just down the road from us. I told Deb that we sure know how to pick a place to live, don’t we? Having neighbors who don’t eat peas is “right up my alley!” MORE FOR US!! LOL!!
Deb and I have been canning about 4 years now, but honestly, Deb wants NO part of the pressure cooker, and believe it or not, my Mother doesn’t either. They were both around pressure cookers blowing off the lids.
So, the pressure canning duty was handed to me. How is it that I’m always the “lucky one?”
Seriously though, I talked with my Aunt Ann who has been around canning all her life with no mishaps, and she convinced me there was no issue at all to canning, besides simply paying attention to what you’re doing. Her oldest son Danny grows a BIG garden every year and cans extensively too.
Yeah, if you’ve been reading us for very long, Danny IS the dern cousin of mine who used to bite me when we were just small children. It got to the point that guy would walk by me and smile, showing them dern canines of his, and I’d be headed the other way!
In my opinion, you need to start off canning something pretty simple, which after just a short period of time, canning as a whole is indeed pretty simple stuff. But peas are a good place to start, so here we go…
We can our peas mainly in quart mason jars. We do a few in pints, but most times if we run out of quarts, or doing some for a meal for just Deb and I. A pint is just about right for this.
First off we put the peas to be canned in a large pot, and bring them to a boil, turning the burner off after them coming to a boil. They sit in this hot water until ready to put them in a jar to can.
While this is taking place we put water in our pressure cooker to the first line nearest the bottom of the cooker and allow this water to start boiling too. We also boil a large pot of water that we “scald” our jars with. This by setting our 7 quart jars (the amount our pressure cooker holds) in the sink, and then pouring the hot water into them.
This disinfects our jars, plus has them hot when we’re ready to add our peas in them, as their water is hot as well.
We then pour out the water in our jars, and start filling them with peas with as little liquid as possible, to a level about 1 inch below where the lids sit. Once our jars are full of peas we add one teaspoon of salt per jar.
At this point we then dip out water from the pea pot, and fill our jars, but once more leaving about a 1 inch gap below where the lids sit. This also serves to breakdown the salt you’d just added, and distributes it throughout the peas.
We then wipe the rims down with a clean rag, add the rings (lids) and seals, and start putting them into the pressure cooker. Once this is done we put the cover on the pressure cooker and wait until steam starts streaming out of the vent pipe. This makes you aware to go ahead and place the **three-piece pressure regulator onto the vent pipe. Shortly after adding this, the air vent/cover lock, I call it the stem, will pop out of the pressure cooker cover letting you know…the cooker is now under pressure.
Once the regulator starts rocking hard, I call it jiggling, we then turn our burner down to about 5-1/2, or medium heat. The whole time prior to this taking place our burner is left on high. Again, once the regulator starts rocking, or jiggling hard, turn your burner down.
The cook time for fresh peas is 40 minutes. The time doesn’t start UNTIL the pressure jiggler is rocking hard. Then set your timer, and the canning process actually begins!
I then allow it to remain on this heat setting until the cooking time has been reached, and the pressure cooker is removed from the stove and set on several towels on the countertop.
At this point you just leave everything alone and wait for the pressure to bleed off. I’m guessing this takes anywhere from 40 to 50 minutes. Once you see the air vent has dropped down back into the cooker cover, you may take off the pressure regulator.
I do this as one more precaution prior to removing the cover of the cooker insuring there is NO more pressure in the cooker. THEN, and ONLY THEN, do you remove the cover.
We then remove the jars, set them on towels as well, and wait to hear the pinging noise of the jars sealing. Once they’ve “pinged,” you know the jars have vacuum sealed. Once they’re cooled, you test once more to make sure they have in fact sealed properly.
This is done by taking a finger and pressing down on the lids. If sealed properly, your finger will meet solid resistance, or they won’t give. If, in fact you do feel a give in the lid, this means the jar HAS NOT sealed as it should have…SO DON”T PUT IT AWAY AS FOOD STORAGE!! It will not keep…it WILL spoil! So, take that particular jar, and heat them back up for supper. Use it in the next day or two, and keep it refrigerated until you do use them.
That’s about it. ***The three-piece pressure regulator has weights. These are used to pressure cook in different elevations across the country. In Florida as an example, we pressure cook using ten pounds of pressure. But this varies as does the altitudes nationwide.
If you purchase a pressure cooker, it will come with a book telling you what weight to use on the regulator depending on your elevation in your area. Simple stuff…
I hope this helps you out some if you’ve never canned before. Deb and I both find it a good, safe way to put food up, and love the taste and convenience it provides us of having a good fresh meal that has already been cooked, and just needs to be warmed up a little to be ready to eat!
We’ll try and do you guys a step by step video of this process the first of the week, but today I have a couple for you to look at if you’d like. They just kinda touch base on this subject, but will at least allow you to “get your feet wet,” in the canning process.
Also, a video of the cows laid up under an oak by the house…life is good! They just ate a gator full of pea hulls.
Thank you for droppin by, and God Bless.
Once more Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!
Dub and Deb