Guest guest Posted August 29, 2008 Report Share Posted August 29, 2008 I normally get the large dried lima beans along with the other dried beans at most grocery stores. They tend to be marginally more expensive, but I think the flavor is worth it. In cooked form, they are available as " butter beans " in cans. The fresh form is sometimes available as Fordhook lima beans, which I love with butter and garlic and Parmesan cheese. Butter beans in the frozen form are a slightly different variety than Fordhooks. The dried large limas require quite a bit of cooking to get soft and start to break down--these are beans that taste better in the mushy form. I find that soaking the beans overnight in a lot of water, followed by draining off all the water with the gas, covering the beans with fresh water and boiling them at least an hour, and then leaving the covered pan on the hot burner but turning the electricity off for an hour or two seems to help. Don't add salt until the beans are soft! The older the beans, the longer the time needed to cook, and the more useful a pressure cooker might be, though the instruction manuals warn against using a pressure cooker to cook beans. Baby lima beans, especially in the fresh-frozen form, look like miniature Fordhook limas but are slimy and nowhere near as tasty. Baby limas are not juvenile Fordhooks, but another variety of bean altogether. They are particularly bad if not cooked thoroughly. Probably more than you wanted to know about dried limas, but I'm still happily eating them. I added onions and some roasted thyme and sesame seeds (Zatar spice mix) and lots of salt. Limas are like potatoes--you need to add an unreasonable amount of salt to get to the right flavor! Sue in St. Louis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 29, 2008 Report Share Posted August 29, 2008 Hi Sue One of my cookbooks says to salt the water when cooking the large lima beans to keep them from shedding their skins and/ or going mushy. all other beans need to be cooked salt free. Have you ever heard that before? I used to make a soup with 21 different beans in it. I always soaked the large limas separately from the rest in salted water. Maybe I was wasting my time. Audrey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 29, 2008 Report Share Posted August 29, 2008 thanks...my favorite veg...fordhooks. --- On Fri, 8/29/08, sue reynolds <skreynolds2 wrote: sue reynolds <skreynolds2 Re: large limas Friday, August 29, 2008, 5:27 PM I normally get the large dried lima beans along with the other dried beans at most grocery stores. They tend to be marginally more expensive, but I think the flavor is worth it. In cooked form, they are available as " butter beans " in cans. The fresh form is sometimes available as Fordhook lima beans, which I love with butter and garlic and Parmesan cheese. Butter beans in the frozen form are a slightly different variety than Fordhooks. The dried large limas require quite a bit of cooking to get soft and start to break down--these are beans that taste better in the mushy form. I find that soaking the beans overnight in a lot of water, followed by draining off all the water with the gas, covering the beans with fresh water and boiling them at least an hour, and then leaving the covered pan on the hot burner but turning the electricity off for an hour or two seems to help. Don't add salt until the beans are soft! The older the beans, the longer the time needed to cook, and the more useful a pressure cooker might be, though the instruction manuals warn against using a pressure cooker to cook beans. Baby lima beans, especially in the fresh-frozen form, look like miniature Fordhook limas but are slimy and nowhere near as tasty. Baby limas are not juvenile Fordhooks, but another variety of bean altogether. They are particularly bad if not cooked thoroughly. Probably more than you wanted to know about dried limas, but I'm still happily eating them. I added onions and some roasted thyme and sesame seeds (Zatar spice mix) and lots of salt. Limas are like potatoes--you need to add an unreasonable amount of salt to get to the right flavor! Sue in St. Louis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 I always use a pressure cooker to cook beans per the instructions that came with the Kuhn Ricon pressure cooker. It alleviates the overnight soaking issue and the beans are done in very little time and with very little gas. I try to eat beans several times a week for the protein and carb content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 Wow Sue, you really know your lima beans! Thanks for that very informative post. I enjoyed reading it and learning from your experience. My dh hates lima beans, but I think it is just because when he was growing up his mom made them eat those icky limas that were in the mixed vegetable frozen sucatash, or those frozen Birdseye brand limas. I have always loved them though; they just have a very satisfying taste & texture. ~ PT ~ I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive. ~ Annie Dillard ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~> , sue reynolds <skreynolds2 wrote: > > I normally get the large dried lima beans along with the other dried beans at most grocery stores. They tend to be marginally more expensive, but I think the flavor is worth it. In cooked form, they are available as " butter beans " in cans. The fresh form is sometimes available as Fordhook lima beans, which I love with butter and garlic and Parmesan cheese. Butter beans in the frozen form are a slightly different variety than Fordhooks. > > The dried large limas require quite a bit of cooking to get soft and start to break down--these are beans that taste better in the mushy form. I find that soaking the beans overnight in a lot of water, followed by draining off all the water with the gas, covering the beans with fresh water and boiling them at least an hour, and then leaving the covered pan on the hot burner but turning the electricity off for an hour or two seems to help. Don't add salt until the beans are soft! > > The older the beans, the longer the time needed to cook, and the more useful a pressure cooker might be, though the instruction manuals warn against using a pressure cooker to cook beans. > > Baby lima beans, especially in the fresh-frozen form, look like miniature Fordhook limas but are slimy and nowhere near as tasty. Baby limas are not juvenile Fordhooks, but another variety of bean altogether. They are particularly bad if not cooked thoroughly. > > Probably more than you wanted to know about dried limas, but I'm still happily eating them. I added onions and some roasted thyme and sesame seeds (Zatar spice mix) and lots of salt. Limas are like potatoes--you need to add an unreasonable amount of salt to get to the right flavor! > > Sue in St. Louis > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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