What you've done, Nancy, is walk smack into a controversy; leading with your chin.

There is a perennial argument as to whether or not limas and butterbeans are the same thing. Basically they are.

Both limas and butterbeans are common names for Phaseolus lunatus, a large seeded annual plant. What you are probably being served, in North Carolina, are Sievas--which is source of another argument. Because they are smaller (like so-called baby limas) some people class them as a subspecies. But Sievas are native to the Carolinas, and are what most Tar-heelers think of when you say "butterbean." They're smaller, and speckled tan when raw.

There are an unknown number of butterbean/lima varieties, but they number at least in the several dozens, with variations in size, color, number of beans to the pod, etc. They're available in both bush and pole types.

The controversy stems from a related bean, sometimes called the "potato lima," which is a perenial, with large seeds. This, however, is a different species, Phaseolus limensis.

The argument has been fairly well settled among botanists. It's chefs, home-cooks, and other culinary enthusiasts who can't make up their minds.

When you hear the word "pea" or "crowder" you're talking about something else. These refer to cowpeas---of which there are something like 240 varieties. Crowders are called so because they are crowded into the pod. As a result, the individual peas are misshapen, most often squared off like little dice (with common beans we call this same phenomonon "cutshort"). Cowpeas are Vigna unguiculata.

All of which is probably a little more than you wanted to know. :>)

The "butter beans" you are talking about are more a matter of how they are cooked than a particular variety of bean. I like butterpeas but rarely grow them because there are so many more varieties I like better. Baby Lima's (as in store bought dry beans) are also good but the flavor is not up to par compared to homegrown and properly harvested beans. My preference is a medium sized pole type bean that develops good flavor and has been harvested at the green shell stage. Here are some of the better examples of each:

Dixie Speckled Butterpea - A very fat deep reddish brown speckled bean that grows on bush plants. About 100 feet of row planted 3 seed per foot will produce 2 to 3 gallons of beans.

Henderson Lima and Fordhook lima - medium size flattened limas that grow on bush plants. These are pretty much industry standard varieties. They are noted for good flavor and canning/freezing properties.

Carolina Red - One of the most interesting and tasty beans I've grown. Its medium sized with a bright red color at maturity. Heat tolerance is outstanding and production is very heavy. This is a pole lima that makes an exceptionally good bean when harvested at the green shelly stage. Sandhill Preservation has a limited stock of seed this year.

Cooking limas is a special art. Here is one of my recipes.

Cook a large pot of lima beans in a pot using 3 times as much water as the volume of beans. I like to boil them about 20 minutes, then pour the water off and put fresh water in to finish cooking. You can add a sliced onion if you choose. Once the beans are done, add parsley, a pinch of garlic powder, salt, a tiny amount of HOT pepper powder, and if you choose, a small pat of butter. I put the spices in to my personal taste, its not measured.
Fusion

Fusion, what's the reason for changing water halfway through?

If you don't change the water some of them beans can be mighty potent. I not sure if a bottle of "beano" could help.Limas are my favorite bean followed by cowpeas. Rodger

Being a Northern boy, the first time I heard the term "butter bean" was when a friend who was a transplanted Arkansan used it. Up here they are limas.

I love the dried ones. Over the years I've refined my technique so they have a buttery texture (not too soft, not too firm), good flavor (ham hocks and red pepper flakes) and gravy of just the right thickness (remove a cupful of beans with juice, cook them soft, puree and add back to the pot). Delicious.

Jim

That doesn't sound right, Rodger.

The "potency" of beans comes from the fact that they contain sugars and proteins that are not water soluble. As a result, they ferment in the GI tract. Gas is a by-product of fermentaton.

Certain treatments (i.e., epazote, baking soda) do dissolve those constituents. But merely changing plain water shouldn't make any difference.

Or are you saying limas act differently than common beans?

Rodger's method would wash out a lot of the sugar, which is soluble. Theoretically that would accomplish what he wants.

I've never noticed that limas are especially potent, however.

Jim

I'm going to try & grow Pinkeye Purple Hull cowpeas this year, they probably won't taste as good as I imagine they will, but I'm going to give it a shot. Some of the best beans I ever ate in my life were fresh ladypeas from Pink & George's farm stand on Edisto Island, we were there on summer vacation, August. We had BBQ & a bunch of other fresh vegetables, but the ladypeas are what I remember...

Baking soda will take care of the gassiness? I love all forms of beans but have almost had to give them up entirely due to the abdominal pain I get after eating them. A friend who was a southerner always cooked hers with a teaspoon of baking soda. I wondered why: does that really work? Pre-cooked canned beans give less trouble than dry ones I cook myself.

My family grew up in NC and we ate many, many butterbeans.
Far back, I can remember our butterbeans being a medium-sized, flat, whitish to greenish in color. They were boiled gently in not too much water, some salt and vegetable oil. They were better if cooked past the rubbery stage but not til mushy. We ate them in a bowl with a little of the bean broth.
Now, the variety we use is very small and less starchy. I cook them the same way.
zinia

OK, I'm from the North, so I freely acknowledge that I might not be the expert on this topic. That being said...

It was always my understanding that "butterbean" referred to any lima harvested in the shelly stage, and either cooked, frozen, or canned in that stage. The dry seeds, regardless of size, are sold packaged as "limas"... at least that is the case here, I don't know if dry limas are sold as "butterbeans" in the South. There are still frozen "limas", however, so as Gardenlad frequently states, the lexicon is hopelessly tangled.

Then there is the species question brought up earlier in the thread. I have spent the last few days reviewing vegetable taxonomy, because the Seed Savers Exchange (of which I am a member) lists many obsolete species names in its Yearbook. It is my belief that the USDA's GRIN taxonomy is the most reliable on-line reference available for that purpose, at least for the U.S.

According to GRIN, Phaseolus limensis is an obsolete term. All limas are now considered to be Phaseolus lunatus.

I'm from the south and my experience is simply that butterbeans and limas are the same. On the otherhand, butter peas are very similar to peas but taste a lot better. In fact, if you like peas you should try butter peas.

As noted it depends a great deal on the section of the country from which you hail. For the most part butterbeans are limas, although the edamame ( Glycine max) folks have gotten into the fray with a cultivar named Butterbean. In the traditional south a butterbean is any type of flat baby lima, independent of color. In the Mississipi valley, the large limas are called butterbeans. If you got them in a restaurant, odds are they were one of the bush baby limas. Pole limas are mostly for home gardeners as harvesting costs are high. Cangreen/ThoroGreen are popular varieties. Many home gardeners use the old Henderson's either white or green tinted. The only colored lima that I have seen commercially grown is the Jackson Wonder. Sieva/Carolina is a flat white pole baby lima.Seed looks like the Bush Hendersons. A popular colored pole baby lima is the Florida Speckled Butterbean. Dixie Butterpeas, both speckled and white, Baby Fordhooks, and Fordhooks are thick starchy limas and are not as often referred to as butterbeans. Once upon a time they were classified as potato limas, but the term has fallen into disuse. Our preferred use of butterbeans or butterpeas is as green shellies.

It sounds like your husband was served speckled butter beans. From a southern cook's point of view, there are basically two differences between butter beans and Lima beans. First, the butter beans are larger and sometimes flatter. But the most fundamental difference is that butter beans are softer and start to disintegrate when cooked too long. Lima's hold their shape longer and are more firm. But it's always best if you cook the butter beans up to the point of falling apart because the ones that do disintegrate make the broth a little thicker and tastier. There are many ways to cook them, but I like to boil them for an hour or two to reach the desired texture. So, put them in water, add boullion, a little olive oil and pepper and/or salt, then boil. Taste the broth you're cooking it in and adjust to your own preference...that's the flavor the beans will ultimately have. I like Better than Bouillon beef flavored but you can use chicken or ham, too. You can also cook them in just olive oil, salt and pepper and they're still delicious. Add whole okra to the pot and it gives another taste variation...and the okra is delicious this way, too. Finally, for some reason they're better if you let them cool and then reheat. Spoon the broth, "pot licker" is what we call it, over corn bread. Heaven!

they are just a small type of lima bean (some say large). But those from the south may or may not argue with that. Perhaps a bit starchier than otherwise. Perhaps a bit like the difference between the old "grey peas" which is just a thick soup kind of pea.

My mother was raised in the north and ate Lima beans. She cooked them when I was a child. When I was in grammar school we moved to the south, she continued to cook Lima beans. However my friends mothers cooked butter beans. Butter beans are much tastier , basically melt in your mouth. Butter beans have thinner shells and are smaller in size, as well as thickness. I think butter beans are a completely different variety of bean than Lima beans in size and taste. Most southern farmers grow butter beans not Lima beans. So it must be the variety because there is defiantly a difference in the two!