Lima Beans

Every region of the country knows and uses lima beans, but special attention is paid to them in restaurants in and around Charleston, South Carolina, where soul-food menus often list “lima bean supper.” Yes, it is built around lima beans and named as such, but it also happens to include a meal’s worth of pork, often in the form of neck bones and pig tails. The meat on neck bones is tender enough that little effort is required to slide off bite-size pieces with minimal fork pressure; pig tails are as unctuous as sizzled fatback. Full-bore lima bean suppers arrive in at least two separate bowls: one full of soupy beans, themselves porkily spiced, the other heaped with brick-red meat that is decorated with a handful of beans. A third bowl might also contain rice, and a fourth empty one can be used for bone disposal.