Cooking Butter Beans (aka Fordhook Lima Beans)

[StarvingButStrong]

A dish my mother made popped into my mind yesterday, and I'm going to try to replicate it today. No, I never asked her about the recipe, I don't think she used recipes anyway, and its too late to ask her now. :(

Anyway, I think it was quite simple. Just butter beans cooked with Kielbasi, but it was all yummy creamy goodness in my memories.

So. I bought a bag of dried large lima beans (which google assured me are what is known as 'butter beans' in some parts of the US) and a kielbasi. Last night I put the beans into a large jar and covered with cold water.

This morning I have a jar with swollen beans and a zillion empty bean shell. :confused: Is that supposed to happen? I've never had any other type of bean act like snakes outgrowing their skin. Should I have done a fast boil rehydration instead of an overnight soak?

Well, too late now. I'll just skim off the nasty looking shells and proceed.

Current plan is to combine the beans, water, the kielbasi sliced into thin disks, and a large onion finely diced, and simmer for an hour or whatever it takes to get them soft and starting to mushify.

What else should I add? Some dry mustard, maybe? Pepper? Herbs? What?

[Zsofia]

Here's my recipe for butter beans with andouille sausage and ham - I use frozen beans, myself. I've never had a problem soaking dried, though. I often increase the recipe to use a whole container of diced ham or whatever ingredient I don't want to only use part of.

4 cups frozen butter beans
2 tablespoons butter
1 shallot, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup andouille sausage, chopped into rounds
1/2 cup smoked ham, diced
about 5 cups water
1 tsp savory
8-10 whole green peppercorns
1 tsp ham soup base (Better than Bouillon or similar)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter, saute shallot and garlic. Add ham and sausage and brown a bit. Add the beans and everything else (make sure the water covers the beans and add some if necessary). Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2-3 hours or until done and the water has reduced to a tasty broth. Be gentle with stirring as it gets more done. Serve with cornbread!

[Sattua]

Weeeeeeird, my husband has started reminiscing about this dish recently, too. He thinks that the thing to do is buy canned beans that are labeled as butter beans. He swears that lima beans aren't the same thing--the texture of lima beans isn't nearly as nice.

[StarvingButStrong]

Zsofia, thanks for the recipe! Savory, eh? Okay. Only have black peppercorns, but I guess they'll do fine. And *2 to 3* hours? Really? Okay. <rearranges afternoon schedule.>>

Sattua, in my extensive googling this morning, I learned that lima beans are 'grown up' green beans, depodded. And that there were two different species of limas. The big ones are Fordhooks and the smaller ones are sold as 'baby limas.' Differenct species, not older/younger version of the same species. (Going just by size, the dried ones I bought are Fordhooks.)

I *have* noticed in the past that 'baby limas' are quite a bit harder/grainier than the big ones, so your husband is likely right about which kind to use in butterbean casseroles.

[Wile E]

I usually buy the canned butter beans but I don't think they'd hold up to extended cooking.