Wash and clean your jars. Fill with hot water or keep them warm in a clean dishwasher or oven.
Wash your lids with hot soapy water and place them in a clean bowl.
Choose young and tender peas, discarding any that look shriveled or spoiled.
Add 3 quarts of water to your pressure canner and put it on a burner set to high. Make sure there is a canning rack in the bottom of the canner.
Raw Pack: Add peas to the jars, carefully ladle in boiling water, leaving 1-inch of headspace at the top of the jars.
Hot pack: cook peas in boiling water for 2 minutes. Strain, then add peas to jars and carefully ladle in fresh boiling water, leaving 1-inch of headspace.
{optional}: add 1 tsp of salt per quart or 1/2 tsp salt per pint.
Use a long utensil (I prefer a plastic chopstick), to remove all the air bubbles from the jar.
Clean the rim of the jar very well with a hot damp rag.
Place a clean lid on the jar. Add a ring, and tighten to fingertip tight.
Using canning tongs, gently place the jars in the canner. Lock the lid. Soon, steam will start coming through the vent pipe.
Allow the steam to pass through for about 10 minutes. Then put the pressure regulator on top.
Pretty soon, the air vent will pop up. Peas need to be pressure canned at 11 pounds of pressure for 40 minutes for pints or quarts. See chart in post above for any changes to processing times.
When the dial gauge reaches 11 pounds of pressure, reduce the burner temp to medium, and start your timer. The pressure must stay at 11 or (a little bit) above for the duration of the cooking time.
When the time is up, remove the canner from the burner and allow it to sit until you hear a distinctive “click” of the air vent dropping. Remove the pressure regulator and carefully remove the lid (Pro tip: use oven mitts to take the lid off because the steam is super hot).
Let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the canner and then lift them out with canning tongs. Place on a thick clean towel undisturbed for 12 hours.
Notes
Store in a cool dark place for 12 months.For seven quarts, you’ll need about 31.5 pounds. For nine pints, you’ll need 20 pounds. A US bushel is 30 pounds and will net you 5-10 quarts.