It’s kind of funny that restaurants will feature cuts of meat on display for customers to be drawn into desire, but I’ve never seen beans used in such a way to get people excited about what’s on the menu. At vegetarian and vegan restaurants, I’ve seen the most common of ingredients used for the creation of meals except for those that use fake chicken, fake pork, and fake fish. Why aren’t beans more popular on America’s menus? I think we all know why: the association with farting. Sure we’ll see refried beans on burritos and BBQ beans at our cookout joints, even a couple of beans if an Italian place features minestrone but where else can we find prepared beans in a restaurant? I suppose there is one more option, whole black beans versus refried beans as customers believe the refried beans are not as healthy. Well, let me inform you America, due to your finicky palette most Mexican places that appeal to white people got rid of lard years ago. Anyway, I think these lima del papa beans are particularly beautiful and if I saw them near the door when I walked into a restaurant they’d definitely get my attention. First mentioned in the 16th century, lima del papa beans originally came from Peru, but later became popular in Europe, especially in Italy.

Last night I forgot to start soaking our limas, so this morning I washed them and, before throwing them in the crockpot, I took a photo while they were still shiny and reflective. I didn’t have a specific recipe for how I was going to make these so I improvised with some red onion, garlic, tasso ham that I’ve mentioned before, a spiced, smoked, and cured chunk of pork from Louisiana, and a couple of bay leaves because everything with beans in a pot seems to use these inedible leaves. The beans are said to retain their shape even when over-cooked so I plan on leaving them in the crock until this evening.

Well, after only 6 hours we decided to try these giant beans and to my surprise, they are already done. No matter as they’ll stay on low in the crockpot and just continue to simmer over the rest of the day.

Verdict: While I only used 8 ounces of Tasso it turned out to be too much for only 10 ounces of dried beans. Both Caroline and I felt like the cooked beans were bigger than the Corona’s but maybe they were thicker so they are overall bigger? Lima del Papa’s will definitely hold a position of being a favorite with us as super-large beans have left a seriously positive impression upon our palettes.