How to Cook Southern Speckled Beans

Cooking Southern Speckle Butter Beans requires that you learn a little of the southern language. First of all what the rest of the world call lima beans is butter beans and the dried large beans label butter beans in the grocery is called lima beans in the South. I don’t know how this came about but if you’re in the southeastern part of the United States if you want a bowl of lima beans you had better call them butter beans because if you don’t you’ll get a bowl of large white dried beans. In the south there’s a purple and white speckled bean called a speckle butter bean. Cooking this beans is very easy and when you serve this bean with a hot piece of corn bread, there’s no better eating. In the summer you can find this bean at a local produce stand. Any other time try a local grocery, they usually have southern butter beans in the frozen food section.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Stove
• Speckled Butter Beans
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon bacon grease or 2 teaspoon canola or olive oil.
• ¼ cup finely chopped onion.
• Two quart sauce pan.
• Dried parsley.

1. 

   Turn on eye of stove to about 7 or 8. Put pan of water on eye. Bring water to boil. It’s better to have the water boiling before you add the speckle beans to cook.

2. Add salt, bacon grease or oil and sugar to the boiling water. The water will dissolve the salt and sugar and melt the grease. You can add ham hocks if you want to for flavor but bacon will give it flavor without the extra grease and salt you get with ham hocks.

3. 

   Chop onion put into boiling water. Add southern speckled butter beans. Southern cooking has changed over the years. It’s no longer full of grease and salt. Bring back to boil and then turn down stove eye. Cover pot and simmer.

4. 

   Cook the southern speckled butter beans until they are tender. This takes about thirty minutes. If southern speckled butter beans are not tender after thirty minutes cook until they are tender, checking every five minutes until desired tenderness.

5. Take southern speckled butter beans up and put into bowl. Sprinkle with dried parsley. Serve with hot corn bread.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't over cook. You want the beans to be tender but not mushy.
• Be careful of getting them to salty if you season with ham hock.
• They will last two to three days in the refrigerator.

[jeni10]

on 11/6/2009 What a yummy, and easy, way to cook southern speckled beans. Thanks for sharing another awesome recipe. 5*

[goodselfme]

on 11/4/2009 I learned how to cook speckled beans from your great recipe.