Canning Split Pea Soup

Anyone ever have a large ham bone with lots of meat still attached after a Sunday Ham dinner? Yeh me too. This is like the holy grail for making pea, potato or bean soup loaded with flavor. I recently pulled out one such item out of my freezer and made a large batch of split pea soup, and oh man did it turn out great!

Ingredients:
1 large leftover ham bone or ham hock (the more meat attached the better)
2-3 large carrots diced
1 large onion (diced) I have used red, white and yellow... I prefer red.
2 bags of dried split peas (rinsed and checked over for stones)
1-2 cloves of garlic minced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of ground allspice
black pepper to taste

1 large stock pot
pressure canner
10-12 pint canning jars, lids and rims (I use wide mouth pint and a half jars, but you can use anything from pints to quarts)
sharp knife
canning utensils

Place the ham bone with meat attached into the stock pot and fill the stock pot with water and set it over medium heat to boil. You are going to let this boil down until you have reduced the water to about 1/3 left. (This is going to take a while and your kitchen will be warm and muggy which is why I tend to do this in mass during the cooler months.)

Once you have reduced your liquid to about 1/3 full, remove the meat and bones. With a sharp knife cut/cube the ham that you want to go back into the soup. I usually chop up about 2 cups or so, sometimes more. 

NOTE: There are times where I will have too much meat and I will throw that into 1-2 pint jars and pressure can that right at the same time along side of the soup (this makes great ham mac n cheese and ham n scalloped potatoes) because the processing time is the same as the soup. Other times I will not have enough meat so I will just grab a jar of canned ham from my pantry and it does the trick. See my post on Why I Can Meat

Add the spices, chopped onion, carrot, minced garlic and peas. 

Fill the pot with about 8 more cups of water. (I usually eyeball it and fill my stock pot about 2/3 full)

Let boil until peas are almost tender. (Note I usually leave them just a bit under cooked because they will continue cooking in the pressure canner)

Remove the bay leaf.

Ladle hot mixture into hot jars leaving 1 in head-
space. Wipe rim and add lids and rims. Tighten to finger tip tightness. 

Process jars 1hr 15 min for pints and 1hr 30min for quarts. (You will need to adjust the pressure for your altitude. For my altitude I use 10 lbs of pressure)

Once done, let jars sit for 24 hrs. Lids should all be sealed. If not, I place mine in the refrigerator and consume within 2 wks. 

My soup tends to be thick and that is how I like it. When I am ready to serve it I can add a cup or 2 of water to thin it out to the consistency desired. 

If you try this please share in the comments below or show me pictures of your canning success!