Sheldon wrote:
> 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.

Do try just once not to be the moron.

You quote books and these people tell you their *actual experience* and
still you want to argue your theoretical sources.

In the American south, like where I and some of these other folks live,
butter beans are a specific bean that looks like a lima but has
different characteristics. They're bigger and they're yellow or
yellow-beige and they eat differently.

All this blather below is still just blather from some web sites, not
personal experience. Rephrase other people's words and try to pass them
off as your own. What's new...?

> 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.

.... and when they're hybridized, they have different characteristics and
different names. Like "Baby" limas and "Fordhook" limas. And butter
beans... And Christmas Limas and Chestnut limas... ooops, same thing -
but not either Baby or Fordhook.

> 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 -

And I bet they called them butter beans just to confuse their customers.
Because, as we all know from your brilliant citations, there's no such
thing as a butter bean. Oh, wait. There's more than one bean called that.

> http://www.birdseyefoods.com/birdsey...yLimaBeans14oz

<LOL> This page is recipes for baby limas. Wonderful. Sure proves the
point. Or something

> http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html#lima
>
> lima bean = butter bean = Madagascar bean = wax bean

<LOL> Do read the whole site when showing your idiocy...
Index page: <http://www.foodsubs.com/FGLegumes.html>
Look at the other bean pages for a fuller picture.

"Christmas lima bean = chestnut lima bean Notes: These taste a bit like
chestnuts when cooked." Not green at all. Specific name different than
"Baby" or Fordhook."

"fava bean = broad bean = *butter bean* = Windsor bean = horse bean =
English bean = fool = foul = ful = feve = faba = haba = habas" Sometimes
called butter beans. Emphasis *added*

"wax bean See lima bean."

"wax bean Notes: These are similar to green beans except for the
color, which can be yellow or purple. Don't confuse these with lima
beans, which are sometimes called wax beans." Picture of a long wax
bean, nothing like a lima.

"Italian flat bean = Romano bean = runner bean Notes: These green or
yellow beans are like ordinary green beans, but they're flatter."

"scarlet runner bean = runner bean"

The same beans have different names in different countries and cultures.
And different beans have the same names sometimes, even though they're
different from each other. All these quotes come from that same site,
different pages.

> 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

Leave the wit to Jack Schidt - you don't have it. It rhymes and is true.

Pastorio