Throw Lima or butter beans into a sauce-pan of water that is already boiling and has salt in it, and cook about half-hour, if green beans, but if dried they will take one and a half hours, besides a previous soaking in water. Drain away the water, and mix in a little cream sauce. or butter sauce, or add milk, butter and salt, and thicken when it boils up.
Whitehead’s Family Cook Book, 1891