On Thu, 17 Nov 2005, Christine Dabney wrote:

> Okay folks,
>
> We were chatting on the chat channel, and we started talking bout
> butter beans. I grew up in VA, and I had them all the time. To me,
> they are smaller than a lima, and a pale green. And they stay that
> way when they are cooked. Boli agrees with this description of them.
>
> Others in the discussion say they are much larger, and tan. Or buff
> or khaki colored.
>
> I have never seen butter beans like that...
>
> For those of you who know about butter beans, what is your description
> of them?
>
> Christine
>

'Round here, a butter bean is a big, plump, cream-colored, kinda
half-moon-shaped (like the lima) bean about the size of an average thumb
nail on a man

The lima bean is a medium sized (about the size of the index finger nail),
grass-green, plump bean. The sizes vary because all the beans (two, three,
or four) in the pod don't mature at the same time. If picked very young,
they can be as tiny as the tip of the little finger (much like the
difference in size in "young, green peas" and regular green peas).

The Fordhook lima is a large, plump, green, tougher-skin-than-a-lima, bean
about the size of the butter bean above.

Then there is a little (smaller than the lima) and more round than half
moon thing that is light green and some are so light green as to look
white and some can be a combination of light green and lighter green. We
call this a butter pea (not a butter bean).

There is also a brown butter bean, called a speckled butter bean, that is
a tad bigger than a regular lima and is "speckled"


The big, cream-colored butter beans aren't seen very often in stores
around here. They
come canned, but they are not good, because they are hard (or this has
been the case with the only few brands I have ever found that offered
them, which haven't been very many; Bush's comes to mind.). They come
dried, but they don't reconstitute well and when cooked, the casing (the
part that holds the soft insides (just like the insides of the lima bean)
separates and the insides come out. Because they are soft, they just
thicken the cooking water. The casing stays intact, but it is empty. So,
they don't make a side dish like limas do. Of
course, cooked with a little ham and poured over a bowl of cornbread
dotted with raw chopped red onions or spring onions, this "soup" is
mighty good on a cold winter's day.

I have never seen them frozen. hmmmm

We had them when I was a kid, but we grew them in the garden.

Elaine, too