Lima beans

One US cup of lima beans weighs 178 grams (6.3 ounces), measured large limas, dry. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.56 cups.

Also called butter beans, dried lima beans, dry lima beans, large lima beans, baby lima beans, Fordhook lima beans.

Dried beans, lentils and peas compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

A cup of dry large lima beans weighs 178 g (6.3 oz), and a cup of dry baby lima beans 202 g (7.1 oz). For each size, USDA and the USDA Food Buying Guide agree within 6%, so this entry publishes USDA's figures. Confidence is medium because all four figures are USDA sources.

Lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus), also called butter beans, are flat, kidney-shaped beans, cream to pale green when dry. They are sold dry in two main sizes: large limas, the Fordhook type, and baby limas, a smaller thin-seeded variety. In the American South both are cooked slowly into a creamy, buttery pot of beans, often with ham; the name butter beans comes from that texture.

USDA SR Legacy "Lima beans, large, mature seeds, raw" (FDC 174252) gives 1 cup = 178 g at 10% water, and the USDA Food Buying Guide counts dry Fordhook limas at about 2 5/8 cups to the pound, 173 g a cup; the two are 3% apart. For baby limas, USDA's "Lima beans, thin seeded (baby), mature seeds, raw" (FDC 174255) gives 1 cup = 202 g, and the Food Buying Guide counts about 2 3/8 cups to the pound, 191 g; 5.8% apart. Both pairs are inside the 10% tolerance for whole seeds. The two sizes are 13% apart, so they are published as separate figures rather than one range.

The physical check: size again decides most of the difference. Large limas are among the biggest dry beans, broad and flat, and in a container as small as a cup the walls leave gaps around them that smaller beans would fill. That puts a cup of large limas at 178 g, lighter than any dry bean on this site except black-eyed peas (167 g), and close to kidney beans (184 g) and Great Northern beans (183 g). Baby limas, much smaller, pack like navy beans (208 g) and mung beans (207 g), and weigh 202 g a cup. The seed is the same; only the size and the air around it change.

Cooked: USDA's boiled baby lima record weighs a cup at 182 g. That is a single source, so it is given here rather than published as a third state. The Bean Institute counts 1 cup of dry beans as about 3 cups cooked and drained.

Practical guidance: use 178 g per cup of dry large lima beans, 89 g per half cup, and about 2 1/2 cups to the pound; use 202 g per cup of dry baby limas, about 2 1/4 cups to the pound. Soak large limas overnight before cooking, and weigh rather than measure by the cup when a recipe does not say which size it means. Fresh and frozen green lima beans are a different, much wetter product and are not covered by these figures.