Do you have to Blanch butter beans?
If you have an excess of butter beans, blanching them -- a short dip in boiling water -- is necessary if you want to freeze them. Freezing rather than canning is less time consuming and lets you make use of your butter bean bounty well after the harvest season. Blanching prepares the beans for freezing.
How do you clean and Blanch green beans?
Wash the beans under fresh running water to remove any debris and dirt. The blanching should remove dirt as well, so you do not need to clean the beans thoroughly. If preparing green beans or other long beans, cut off the thick stem end with a small knife. It is not necessary to remove both ends of the bean.
What are speckled butter beans?
Speckled butterbeans, sometimes called colored butterbeans, are an old Southern favorite side dish. Quick and easy to prepare. … … I knew these more as “colored butterbeans” growing up instead of Speckled Butter Beans.
What does blanching beans do?
Blanching cleans the beans of any surface debris, helps preserve the texture and color of the beans, and minimizes the loss of nutrients. Butter beans can be steam blanched but this is not recommended.
Description
One of the South’s favorite side dishes is Speckled Butter Beans, sometimes also known as Colored Butterbeans. They are quick and easy to fix and go with just about any meat dish you will serve.
Notes
You can use ham hocks, smoked turkey, bacon grease, side meat or whatever type of seasoning meat you have available. Don’t overcook the beans or they will be mushy.
Tips
If you are blanching the beans at an elevation of 5,000 ft (1,500m) or higher, increase the boiling time by 1 minute, checking on the beans halfway through.
Warnings
Boiling the beans for too short or too long a time can cause the beans to break down faster than they would with no blanching at all. [10]
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How to Prolong Fresh Lima Beans
Southern-cuisine expert and cookbook author Diana Rattray has created more than 5,000 recipes and articles in her 20 years as a food writer.
Shell and Sort
Usually, 4 pounds of unshelled raw lima beans will yield approximately 2 pints of frozen beans, so plan accordingly.
Blanch
Enzymes, a necessary component for the digestion of nutrients, also are the reason vegetables lose color and flavor, even when they are frozen. To stop the enzymatic process, vegetables should be blanched.
Pack and Freeze
You can pack the chilled vegetables in the container you refrigerated them in after blanching, or a better option is to quick freeze or dry pack the beans. These methods can help prevent clumping and make it easier to use small amounts from containers.
Cooking From Frozen
In general, it is best to use as little water as possible and cook the vegetables until done to your satisfaction. It is not necessary to thaw frozen vegetables first.
Lima Bean Recipes
Succotash, usually a lima bean and corn side dish, is probably the most common preparation of lima beans on most American tables. There are few recipes for succotash: baked succotash , creamy succotash recipe, and succotash with okra .
