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Lima Beans a la Poulette
Boil 1 quart of young beans over a quick fire until nearly done; then put them into a stewpan with a little sugar, half a pint of stock, cream or milk, and a tablespoonful of butter, pepper and salt at discretion. Before beginning to stew see that the beans are well drained from the water in which they were boiled. Stew until half the liquor is absorbed, and just as they are on the point of simmering beat up the yolk of an egg with a quarter of a pint of cream, and add it to them. Time, ten minutes to boil; fifteen to stew. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A classic egg-and-cream liaison applied to beans. The measurements are British imperial and the whole dish takes under half an hour once the beans are shelled.
- The hinge: never let it boilOnce the yolk and cream go in, the liquid must stay below a simmer. Above roughly 180F the yolk curdles and the sauce turns grainy. Pull the pan off the heat, stir the liaison in, then return it to very low heat only long enough to thicken.
- Temper the yolkThe instruction to add the beaten yolk directly works only if the pan is off the boil. Safer practice is to whisk a ladle of the hot bean liquor into the yolk and cream first, then pour that back.
- Quart of beansA quart measure of shelled beans is roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb, which may take 3 to 4 lb of beans in the pod, as limas shell out poorly. Frozen baby lima beans work; about 20 oz is in the right range.
- Liquid measuresHalf a pint of stock or cream is one US cup; a quarter of a pint of cream for the liaison is half a cup. If working from British measures the volumes are about 20 percent larger, which does no harm here.
- A quick fireFull heat, water at a rolling boil. Young limas take 10 to 15 minutes; older or dried-then-soaked beans will need considerably longer and should be tender before they meet the cream.
- Drain thoroughlyThe warning is well placed. Cooking water clinging to the beans dilutes the stock and stops it reducing in the fifteen minutes allowed.
- Sugar and seasoning"A little sugar" is unquantified; half a teaspoon is about as far as one can go without sweetening the dish. Salt after the stock has reduced, since reduction concentrates whatever salt the stock carries.
- ServingFive or six as a side dish. It holds badly, so finish the sauce just before it goes to the table.
A la poulette names one of the older French white sauces: a light stock or cream base finished off the heat with egg yolk, often with lemon and parsley, and used on veal feet, mushrooms, tripe and vegetables. The word means "in the manner of a young hen," generally taken as a reference to the yolk that gives the sauce its body and pale gold colour rather than to any use of chicken. Nineteenth-century English-language compilations borrowed the French vocabulary freely, attaching it to local produce, and lima beans were an obvious candidate: grown widely in the United States by the nineteenth century, sold fresh in the pod through late summer, and mild enough to carry a rich sauce without argument. The technique here, reducing the cooking liquid and then thickening it with yolk, is the same liaison that finishes a blanquette, scaled down to a vegetable dish.