jmcquown wrote:
> Elaine Parrish wrote:
> > 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
>
> I've never read a better description of butter beans! Thanks, Elaine! Yep,
> Bush's makes canned large butter beens. I've never seen them frozen,
> either. They are definitely bigger than even a Fordhook lima bean and are
> tan/yellow.
Couldn't have bean a more inaccurate description... once again for the
IQ impaired, butter bean (hillybilly vernacular) is exactly precisely
synonymous with lima bean. All beans are graded so naturally they can
be found in various sizes, but size has nothing to do with anything,
they're the same bean. With limas there are either babys or fordhooks;
different type of lima. Either type can be mottled; hybridized.
Frozen limas/butter beans are readily available in most
stupidmarkets... and many brands, from generic, to store brands, to
name brands, to Birdseye.
I recenty tried Bush's canned butter beans (bought 2 cans last week -
on sale at half price - must be a new product promotional), just
awful... but then again I don't care for any Bush's products... their
beans are way over cooked and much too watery.... there are very few
butter beans in those cans, it's mostly water, the beans are mushy and
most are broken with their skins floating about like so many toenail
clippings, and did I mention *salty*... Bush's products are also
typically over priced.
http://www.birdseyefoods.com/birdsey...yLimaBeans14oz
http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html#lima
lima bean = butter bean = Madagascar bean = wax bean Pronunciation:
LIE-muh Notes: With their buttery flavor, lima beans are great in
soups or stews, or on their own as a side dish. The most popular
varieties are the small baby lima bean = sieva bean and the larger
Fordhooks. You can get limas fresh in their pods in the summer, but
many people prefer to use dried lima beans. Shelled frozen limas are a
good substitute for fresh, but canned limas aren't nearly as good. The
biggest downside is that lima beans are harder to digest than other
beans. Substitutes: fresh lima beans OR fava beans (more flavorful)
OR soybeans
---
Sheldon Legume