Rant: Butter beans are not lima beans!

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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I dont’ think anybody is mistaking this guy for a lima bean:

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Robert, I believe that the colloquial and regional differences in this nomenclature are vast. Where I grew up in WV, the distinction between the two was similar to the designations in the British Isles: Lima beans are the smaller green ones, and butter beans are large and white and either come in a can or are dried. We frequently had the latter when I was growing up prepared with onions and bacon or ham grease. They were tan and were baked as in a casserole. They were very starchy and had a somewhat puckery/tannic quality that irritated one’s mouth. It appears that the distinction between the two is the opposite in the South. Apparently your “converted” midwesterner and you were using different colloquialisms and she thought you really were serving her “butter beans”.

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The last thing I would want to do is argue with Robert about this – and my experience with butterbeans is very scant.

But I have noticed quite a few different things called butter beans, including something in an Australian recipe that looked kind of like white string beans. Googling for canned butter beans bears out the concept that in SOME parts of the country, they are the bigger ones.

http://blogs.experiencelifemag.com/survival-of-the-fittest/2009/04/the-ballad-of-butter-bean-salad.html

http://www.abc.net.au/kyliekwong/recipes/s952531.htm

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Proving that WV is part of Great Britain, not part of the South?

[swoon.gif]

You haven’t disagreed with either of my two main points, Frank:

  • Despite their taxonomic sameness, butter beans and lima beans are quite different - even if you’re from WV or the UK and have the nomenclature backwards. [wink.gif]
  • “In the South, the small-seeded Sieva type is almost universally called a butter bean, sometimes a Dixie (green) or Henderson (speckled) butter bean after the two most widely grown cultivars. Sometimes it is called a baby lima, though it is not an immature Lima type.”
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Robert says:

Proving that WV is part of Great Britain, not part of the South?

Just the latter. . .haven’t been since you guys attacked Ft. Sumpter in the war of southern aggression [wink.gif]

I checked my sources in Ky and TN. They use the same nomenclature as WV and GB. Could Atlanta be unique?

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Sumter.

neener

WV transplants?

Yes, Atlanta is unique - but not with respect to bean nomenclature.

From the “What Are Butter Beans?” entry on wisegeek.com:

Butter beans, sometimes called lima beans, are a seed, and are considered a vegetable. They are of the genus and species Phaseolus lunatus, and have two main varieties. The first variety is a large slightly curved flat green bean that those in the Southern US would refer to as lima beans or the lima type. A second type of P. lunatus has smaller seeds and is often called the sieva type. When Southern US cuisine mentions butter beans, they are referring to the smaller sieva seed.

The lima bean appears to have first been cultivated in the Andes, while the smaller butter beans were more commonly grown in Mexico. Both styles are grown harvested from seedpods, where in fresh form they’re commonly green. There are some variant colors, among them red and orange. Because they are usually picked before ripening, you’ll find most “fresh” beans in a green color. The smaller lima beans are about .4 inches (1 cm) long, and larger variety lima beans can be about 1.18 inches (3 cm) in length.

There are slight differences in nutritional value between butter and lima beans. Butter beans have tiny amounts of fat, are higher in iron, and are slightly higher in calories. Both types of beans are excellent choices though. While you can find butter beans dried, frozen or canned, they are most preferred as a fresh vegetable side dish. They take about 20 minutes to steam, and are usually served with a pat of butter and a little salt/pepper and herbs.

You can find fresh butter beans in the US from late spring through the early parts of summer. Since they are popular, both versions of the bean are grown in other countries and may be imported at other times of the year. You can also usually find frozen butter beans, which make a good substitute when fresh beans are not in season.

In Northern US grocery stores, you’ll have better luck looking for lima beans, since quite frequently, butter beans is strictly a southern cooking term.

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here’s an heirloom bean web site.
alan

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Another good source for beans: Home - Purcell Mountain Farms