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Cream of Lima Bean Soup
1 cup dried lima beans 1 cup cream or milk 3 pints cold water 4 tablespoons butter 2 slices onion 2 tablespoons flour 4 slices carrot 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper Soak beans over night; in the morning drain and add cold water; cook until soft, and rub through a sieve. Cut vegetables in small cubes, and cook five minutes in half the butter; remove vegetables, add flour, salt, and pepper, and stir into boiling soup. Add cream, reheat, strain, and add remaining butter in small pieces.
A straightforward puree soup built on a roux enriched with butter at the end. The ingredient list runs the two columns together, so read the pairs carefully before starting.
- The hingeThe flour goes into the fat left after the onion and carrot are lifted out, then that paste is stirred into boiling soup. Add it to a lukewarm pot and it will settle into lumps rather than thicken smoothly.
- Bean soaking and cookingAn overnight soak plus a simmer in the full 3 pints; dried limas take 45 to 75 minutes depending on age. Old beans may never soften, and no amount of extra time will fix them.
- SievingA food mill or a fine sieve gives the intended texture. A blender is quicker but leaves the skins in suspension, so pass it through a sieve afterward if you want the smooth result the recipe expects.
- Butter, split in twoHalf the 4 tablespoons cooks the vegetables and becomes the roux; the recipe adds the rest in small pieces at the very end, after reheating and straining. It does not say to take the pot off the heat, but hard boiling after the final butter goes in will make it separate.
- SeasoningHalf a teaspoon of pepper is assertive by modern taste. The recipe does not say which pepper is meant; white pepper is often preferred in a pale cream soup. Start with a quarter teaspoon and adjust.
- Cream or milkEither works; milk gives a thinner soup that leans on the roux for body. Add it warm to a soup that is off the boil to avoid curdling.
- YieldSomething under 2 quarts once the beans have simmered down, or roughly six to eight first-course servings. It thickens noticeably as it stands, so hold back some of the cream to loosen it on reheating.