In October, at the edge of the garden plot, the tops of the Job's tears stalks are bent under the weight of ripe grain. The seeds went in back in April or May (in the Northern Hemisphere), once the soil had warmed past 15°C. Over the summer, the plants grew to nearly 1.5 m tall. Job's tears (yulmu in Korean, also called adlay) is an annual cereal in the grass family. It grows best between 20 and 30°C and dies at the first frost. China is the main producer, and the crop is also widely grown in Thailand, Laos, Korea and Japan. If you cut and dried your stalks in October or November, what should you serve the grain with?
First, Take Off the Hulls
Each grain of Job's tears sits inside an involucre, a hard shell that wraps around the seed, so you can't eat it straight from the harvest. It has to be hulled before it can go into a rice cooker or a pan. The Dongui Bogam, Korea's classic 17th-century medical encyclopedia, explains how to prepare it in the Grains section (穀部), under the entry for the hulled seed (薏苡仁). You steam the seeds until the steam rises, dry them in the sun, then grind or rub them to free the kernels. The same entry also gives a way to spot the real thing: genuine Job's tears sticks to your teeth when you chew it.
If you find a similar-looking seed growing around your plot, learn to tell the two apart. The wild bead type, which Koreans call yeomju ("rosary beads"), has a harder, glossier shell. It belongs to the same group as Job's tears, but it isn't eaten as a grain.
Cook It with Rice
If you're serving Job's tears for the first time, rice is the easiest place to start. If you've ever cooked rice with mixed grains, you know that each grain cooks at its own pace. Job's tears takes longer than rice, so soak it for three to four hours before cooking.
Use about 10% as much Job's tears as rice: roughly 30 g of Job's tears to 300 g of rice. If you add too much, the rice turns dry and crumbly. Start with this ratio, then adjust it a little at a time to suit your family's taste.
Roast It for a Toasty Grain Tea
Put hulled Job's tears in a dry pan with no oil and roast it, stirring as you go. Take it off the heat once the grains turn brown on the outside. Simmer the roasted grains in water and you'll have a nutty drink to sip with meals, much like the roasted barley tea served at Korean tables. The color and aroma depend on how long you roast the grains: the longer they roast, the darker the color and the deeper the aroma. But if you burn them, all you'll taste is bitterness. Instead of roasting a big batch at once, roast only enough for a few days at a time.
Stir the Powder into Milk or Soy Milk
Grind roasted Job's tears into a fine powder and you can stir it into milk or soy milk. Mixed this way, the grain's rough, earthy edge is much less noticeable. If you dump the powder into hot liquid all at once, it will clump, so add it a little at a time and keep stirring. The powder sinks to the bottom, so give the cup a few more stirs while you drink. Tomorrow morning, try stirring a little Job's tears powder into a mug of warm soy milk.
What's in It, and How to Store It
According to food composition tables, hulled Job's tears contains around 5 g of fat per 100 g, which is more than rice or barley. That fat is also why hulled grain develops a rancid smell if it sits too long (rancidity is the spoilage that happens when oils react with air). So divide your hulled grain into portions you'll actually use, seal them in airtight containers and keep them somewhere cool and dark. Use the oldest batch first.
Studies report that compounds such as coixol and coixenolide have been isolated from Job's tears seeds, and some analyses suggest these compounds are more concentrated in the outer husk and bran layers. These reports describe what the grain is made of. They don't show any health benefit. The Dongui Bogam describes Job's tears as slightly cooling by nature, though it also records a view that it is neutral, and it says the grain tastes sweet and is not toxic. These descriptions come from a historical medical text and are not the conclusions of modern medicine.
Soak 30 g of hulled Job's tears in water three to four hours before you start cooking, then add it to the pot with 300 g of rice for tonight's dinner.
Sources: Dongui Bogam, Grains section (穀部), entry on 薏苡仁 · Nongsaro, Rural Development Administration of Korea · Korean Standard Food Composition Table
