![]() What’s The Difference Between Fordhook and Baby Lima Beans?įordhook and baby lima beans are the two most common types of lima beans. ![]() Since they’re normally sold dried, buying frozen lima beans is usually the best way to experience the taste of fresh beans. Harvested in mid/late summer to early fall, fresh lima beans are usually only available at farmer’s markets or specialty grocery stores. In the United States, Lima beans are a common food in the United States. ![]() In addition to being an important food source in the Incan empire, they were grown in other parts of pre-Columbian Latin America, too. Originally from South America, lima beans got their name during the Spanish colonial period when boxes of beans exported to other parts of Latin America and Europe were labeled with the words “Lima, Peru,” the modern-day capital city of Peru. ![]() If you want to learn how to make this classic southern comfort food on the stove top, keep reading! What Are Lima Beans? History If the limas hadn’t been so old … if I’d had a good piece of ham … if I’d used less water … if I’d tried one of the optional additions … would I have had a decent soup? I don’t know, but I’m not interested in finding out.My lima beans and ham recipe on the stove top is easy and delicious! Frozen lima beans allow you to enjoy the sweet taste of fresh beans at any time of the year, and the addition of ham hock and leftover ham add both flavor and protein, helping to turn a pot of beans into a full meal. Well, at least it didn’t taste like lima beans! I hate to waste food, but I tossed the rest of it. The only detectable flavors were clove, celery, and pork fat. The bowl looked something that’d be served at Oliver Twist’s workhouse.Īnd so it was: like the worst kind of meager, insipid, institutional food. Not a problem here: The soup was so thin I had to boil it down some. The recipe then said to thin the soup, if necessary, with water or milk. A blender or food processor would have done it faster, but there was so much liquid there that I thought milling might give it more texture. I pause to mention that my salt pork was so fatty there was hardly any meat to work with, and it was very stringy. When the carrots were tender, I had to remove the meat and puree everything through a food mill. Oh, come on, Irma – have the courage of your basic preparation! Is it going to be OK without these things or isn’t it? I added only salt. At least they made the soup look less like sludgy dishwater.Īt this point the recipe suggested optional additions: garlic, saffron, sorrel, mashed potatoes. While it simmered along, I chopped the remaining ingredients: generous quantities of carrot, onion, and especially celery.Īfter two hours my beans had softened enough that, as the recipe directed, I added the chopped vegetables for a final 30 minutes. Well, plenty of time for it to improve, I hoped. The required eight cups of water looked like an awful lot for the amount of beans, and the salt pork quickly released a lot of scummy fats. I had a chunk of salt pork in the freezer.Īs the cooking began, it was not so encouraging. They were to start cooking in boiling water with a bay leaf, whole cloves, peppercorns, and a meat ingredient: either ham, a ham bone, or salt pork. The next morning they’d tripled in volume and looked pretty good, which was encouraging. It looked as if it would do, so I soaked a cup of the limas overnight. In my ancient, rebound copy of Joy of Cooking I found a recipe simply called Dried Bean Soup, which offered a choice of navy, kidney, lima, or marrow beans. But also not too bare-boned, lest there be too few supporting flavors for the beans to blend with. It would have to be not too elaborate, so if the limas let me down I wouldn’t have wasted all the other ingredients. We were having chilly fall weather just then, which made a soup sound like a good idea. Since I’ve done many posts on recipes that came out extremely well for me, I feel it’s only fair to admit to some that haven’t.) (From the above title you’ve no doubt gathered that this story is not going to have a happy ending. But I recently got tired of looking at the jar of dried limas sitting in my pantry – leftovers from making a recipe that used some in a modest supporting role a few years ago – and resolved to do something with them.
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