Comments on: Split Pea Soup in the Pressure Cooker

By: dorisandjilly

dorisandjilly — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:58:39 +0000

Kathy,
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “cold pack”–my internet searches for that term suggested a technique where you put cold food into hot jars and then boil them, and, obviously, soup isn’t cold. But more to the point: vegetables cannot be processed in a boiling water bath canner, and split peas are most certainly a vegetable. This soup is nowhere near acidic enough to be safe for water-bath canning.

If you wish to preserve this soup, your best option is a freezer. While it is possible to pressure can split pea soup, you would need to process the jars for upwards of 60 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure for pint jars. Please see the National Center for Home Food Preservation Web site for more information on canning bean soups.

By: Kathy La Fountain

Kathy La Fountain — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:25:08 +0000

I would like to know if you must use the pressure cooker method to can split pea soup? Can you use the cold pak method?
Thanks

By: benbes

benbes — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:20:00 +0000

I love split pea soup, i did in fact made it wity my pressur cooker but not exactly with your recipe, I will try it step by stpe using your recipe, soudn delecious, thank you for sharing. presto pressure cooker

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:45:01 +0000

I love all your pressure cooker info. Thank you. I have a small guy and have used it for grains and stuff, but no canning yet. Never thought I could do it in there. Your jars of chicken stock make me so envious. My freezer is cluttered with containers of the stuff!!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:26:03 +0000

20 minutes sounds like more than enough time. I think you’d get pretty good flavor in 10, given what I’ve done with beef stews–and besides, the ham’s already cooked.

By: RSR

RSR — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:40:00 +0000

I only have a six quart cooker, so I’d probably just make the broth under pressure, and then cook the peas for the hour traditionally.

In addition, the separate steps allow me time to cool the ham and shred it.

How long would you cook the ham under pressure alone to generate a broth? (i’m guessing somewhere in the range of 20 minutes to a 1/2 hour? That’d knock my total cook time down by at least 50%, which would still be great.)

By: admin

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:16:41 +0000

It’s much faster. My non-ham bone version took about 45 minutes from start to finish. If I were using a ham bone, I would use a giant pressure cooker, to remove the need to cover the peas, and throw in the ham bone at the same time. It will take a big PC a bit longer to come to pressure, but if you’ve got a powerful stove, you’re still looking at, say, 20 minutes. Then 10 minutes at pressure, then a quick release. You’re now at a half-hour. Put in the remaining vegetables and bring it back up to speed, then cook another 3 minutes (23 more minutes). With a big pressure cooker, you can probably quick release safely. You’re still at less than an hour. Since I wasn’t using a ham bone, I was able to use my little pressure cooker, which comes up to pressure in well under 10 minutes. So yes, it’s super fast, compared to cooking a soup for 3 hours.

By: RSR

RSR — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:40:13 +0000

What’s the total time it usually takes for the cooker to come up to pressure, to cook, then for the pressure to drop?

I use a Cooks Illustrated recipe (non pressure cooker) which begins with a 2 – 2 1/2 hour simmer of a small smoked bone-in picnic ham and a few bay leaves, creating a ham stock of sorts. Then the peas are simmered for about an hour. They also do the addition of well-browned mirepoix and potatoes with about 20 minutes left.

How long would you think the broth-making step would take in a pressure cooker? I think it could probably save a great deal of time.

As for the pea cooking part, the time to come up to pressure and then cool down then back up again and down again after adding the mirepoix doesn’t seem that efficient.