Big, fresh butter beans have a fleshy opulence that forces serious reconsideration of legumes in the hierarchy of edible luxuries. “They’re like eating steak!” rhapsodized Lowcountry chef Philip Bardin, explaining that the big Fordhooks he serves in his Old Post Office restaurant on Edisto Island, South Carolina, are thick and supple enough to absorb vast amounts of the pig meat with which they are cooked. A frequent choice on meat and three menus throughout the South, butter beans can be the most unvegetarian vegetable imaginable, as lavish as bacon. Unlike ordinary baby limas, which are small, dense, and bright-colored, these large celadon sachets are hefty enough to cut with a knife.
Butter beans laced with ham at the Old Post Office restaurant on Edisto Island, South Carolina.