How to Pressure Can Peas

I’m often asked why I choose to can certain foods when they could just as easily be frozen. My answer might vary from food to food, but the answer is usually that freezer space is limited and we simply have too much. At the moment, we’ve got our fridge freezer, a small chest freezer here, a small chest freezer at my mom’s house, and a medium chest freezer at my mom’s house. By the end of the harvest season, these are crammed full and there’s no room for additional stuff. We should be getting another chest freezer this year, but I think that will only ease the freezer space pressure a little bit but not solve it.

For some foods, canning creates new flavours or products, so that’s the primary reason. The clear answers here are tomatoes — from which I can pasta sauce, curry sauce, juice, soup, and more —and things like beets and hot peppers, which I pickle.

And for some foods, like peas, I just enjoy it canned rather than frozen. I prefer the soft texture you get from canned peas and don’t care much for the harder and drier texture of frozen peas (even boiling frozen peas doesn’t solve that issue for me).

Not all peas are made for canning. We grow two types of peas — the first are snap peas which are good for snacking on as-is, but they’re not suitable for canning. If we have an excess of snap peas, I will shell them and freeze the peas. The second types of peas are Alaskan peas — these ones hold up well to canning.

Since peas are a low-acid food, they can only be pressure-canned. It is unsafe to can them using a regular boiling water canner or other canning method. If you’re newer to canning or coming back to it after a long time away, check out my Canning 101 post to help get a handle on terminology and best practices for safety.

How to pressure can peas

I’ve had a lot of folks say “Oh, you’ve got a pressure canner? That must speed things up!” While a pressure cooker can speed up the cooking process, pressure canning slows down the canning process. A lot of time is spent pressurizing the canner and then depressurizing it, and the processing times tend to be longer than water bath canning.

So the first thing you’ll need is time. I rarely do pressure canning on a busy weeknight; rather, I tend to save them for Saturday afternoons.

There are two methods to canning peas — raw pack and hot pack. I prefer the raw pack method because it’s easy; you just pack your peas in the jars, top them with boiling water, and can them. Hot packing requires boiling the peas first, then packing them in jars with hot water. This post is for the raw pack method.

Pressure canning peas is an easy project and great for someone newer to canning. Let’s dive into the steps:

Step one: Prepare the peas

The first step is to shell the peas. It’s generally a good idea to give them a good rinse before shelling them, so any dirt, debris, and contaminants on the outside of the pod get washed away before you shell them and end up getting that dirt in the shelled peas.

There are different ways to shell peas and there are little devices to help you with the process. I tend to rip one end of the pod and then crack it open.

Give yourself a lot of time for shelling peas because it’s not a quick process. What I’ll typically do is if I’m planning to can on Saturday, then starting on Thursday evening I’ll shell peas. Once shelled, they store well in the fridge for a couple days before canning.

Once all your peas have been shelled, give them another rinse to wash away any dirt or contaminants that might be in there.

Step two: Load up your jars

Using quart or smaller size jars — I use half-pint / one-cup jars — fill them with peas, leaving a one inch headspace.

Add an optional pinch of salt to each jar. It’s best to use canning salt, if you have it. Sea salt works just as well.

Top with boiling water, maintaining the one inch headspace.

Debubble the peas to ensure no air pockets are trapped, and adjust headspace with more water if needed. Wipe the jar rims with a paper towel wetted with white vinegar, then attach two-part lids to fingertip tightness.

Step three: Pressure canning peas

Load the jars into your pressure canner and proceed as per your canner’s instructions. For me, before the jars go in, I have to fill water to a certain line, then load the jars in, close the lid with the vent open, and bring to a boil. I let it boil for about ten minutes, then add the weighted gauge, the vent closes on its own, and I let the pressure build to where I want it.

At my elevation, the pressure required using a weighted gauge is 10 pounds. For 1,001 feet and up, use a 15 pound weighted gauge. For a dial gauge, it’s 11 pounds up to 2,000 feet, 12 pounds for up to 4,000 feet, 12 pounds for up to 6,000 feet, 14 pounds for up to 8,000 feet, and 15 pounds for up to 10,000 feet.

The processing time, regardless of the elevation, gauge type, and jar size is 40 minutes.

Once 40 minutes at the appropriate pressure have passed, turn off the stove and again proceed as per canner directions. For me, this means letting it cool depressurize until the vent clicks open, then remove the weighted gauge, and let it sit for ten minutes. Then I can take off the lid and carefully remove the jars, letting them sit on a thick towel somewhere, undisturbed until the next day.

Step four: Enjoy

Canned peas can sit on a shelf for up to 18 months, after which time quality may degrade (but safety should not degrade as long as the jar remains fully sealed).

To enjoy your peas, simply pop open a jar and warm them up on the stove. They’re already fully cooked, so you’re just reheating them.

More food preserving recipes

If you haven’t already checked out my new cookbook, Preserving Your Urban Harvest, please do so! It includes 73 recipes to preserve 21 garden favourite crops, including peas!