Grain
Coix lacryma-jobi
B tier
Coix lacryma-jobi is Job’s tears—the grass grain of Asian porridges, teas, and traditional medicine, with hard bead types used as beads and soft-shelled ma-yuen types for cooking. Flavour is mild, slightly sweet, barley-like. Species covers both ornamental hard seeds and culinary soft grains. Choose soft-shelled types for food.
Track this ingredient
Unit
Characteristics
Preparations
Grain BowlPorridgeSoupTea
Traits
AsianBead And Culinary FormsMildMild GrainSpecies LevelSpecies Umbrella
History
CN
East Asian agriculture used Coix as a food and medicinal grain.
Linnaeus named Coix lacryma-jobi for the tear-shaped seeds.
Hard bead types entered craft trade while soft types stayed culinary.
Health-food markets revived Job’s tears as an Asian ancient grain.