Millet(s) identification: What is in these 2 packages?
Attached is a photo of a pair of clear packages of millet(s), side-by-side. The main language on the packages is Chinese, and since these are intended for market in the US, there is also some English. These were seen recently on the shelves of a local store specializing in Chinese and other international foods. Here are two questions about the packages, for which you will not need to read Chinese (and the English text won't help): 1. Which millet or millets appear to be in the packages? 2. Do the grains in the two packages look the same or different? After a while, I'll offer my take, but wanted to get your expert opinions, as best as you can tell from what is provided. I can forward the full-sized image (20 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in. TIA, Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
Already had two requests for the full size, higher resolution image. Here's an additional piece of information that might limit the range of answers, even though it probably would not change the appearance of a grain. The one on the right is a glutinous, sticky, or waxy variety of a millet. (Not all millets, and possibly only two, have cultivars producing glutinous grains.) If you read Chinese, or know how to use OCR and translation utilities, you may be tempted to base your answer on that information. I plan to add discussion about that later, but the point of the exercise is to confirm or eliminate a perception I (as a consumer who has been informally tracking millets for sale with Chinese-language labels) have about this. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:46 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Attached is a photo of a pair of clear packages of millet(s), side-by-side. The main language on the packages is Chinese, and since these are intended for market in the US, there is also some English. These were seen recently on the shelves of a local store specializing in Chinese and other international foods.
Here are two questions about the packages, for which you will not need to read Chinese (and the English text won't help): 1. Which millet or millets appear to be in the packages? 2. Do the grains in the two packages look the same or different?
After a while, I'll offer my take, but wanted to get your expert opinions, as best as you can tell from what is provided.
I can forward the full-sized image (20 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in.
TIA,
Don
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
Do you have them at your house? Can you cook them to see if the flavor and texture are different? It looks like two different proso millets by looking at the photo. Thanks On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 9:34 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Already had two requests for the full size, higher resolution image.
Here's an additional piece of information that might limit the range of answers, even though it probably would not change the appearance of a grain. The one on the right is a glutinous, sticky, or waxy variety of a millet. (Not all millets, and possibly only two, have cultivars producing glutinous grains.)
If you read Chinese, or know how to use OCR and translation utilities, you may be tempted to base your answer on that information. I plan to add discussion about that later, but the point of the exercise is to confirm or eliminate a perception I (as a consumer who has been informally tracking millets for sale with Chinese-language labels) have about this.
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:46 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Attached is a photo of a pair of clear packages of millet(s), side-by-side. The main language on the packages is Chinese, and since these are intended for market in the US, there is also some English. These were seen recently on the shelves of a local store specializing in Chinese and other international foods.
Here are two questions about the packages, for which you will not need to read Chinese (and the English text won't help): 1. Which millet or millets appear to be in the packages? 2. Do the grains in the two packages look the same or different?
After a while, I'll offer my take, but wanted to get your expert opinions, as best as you can tell from what is provided.
I can forward the full-sized image (20 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in.
TIA,
Don
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
-- Collab mailing list Collab@lists.millets2023.space https://lists.millets2023.space/mailman/listinfo/collab
Hi Joni, No I don't have these at hme - the photo was taken in the store. (I do have proso and foxtail but fom other sources.) Cooking them might indeed tell us more. Sprouting and growing them out - if the seeds are viable - would be definitive. Offline, one opinion was that these are proso, and the other that they are foxtail. My consumer's opinion is that they both look like proso. Here's the reason for asking, which gets a little technical, but bear with me. The package on the left says 大黄米 (dàhuáng mǐ), literally big yellow staple-grain, which means proso millet, and on the right, it says 糯小米 (nuò xiǎomǐ), with nuò meaning glutinous (or waxy) and xiǎomǐ literally being meaning little staple-grain, which strictly speaking is foxtail millet. So I'm wondering if the packaging company played loose with its terms, and packed glutinous proso as glutinous foxtail? I think I've seen this once before by another company. The Chinese term 米 (mǐ) is usually used for rice, such that you may read that 小米 (xiǎomǐ) means literally "little rice." However mǐ also has a wider sense, somewhat analogous to "corn" in English, which I tried to render here as staple-grain. The "little rice" translation has led to some bilingual Chinese-English packaging literally using "little rice" or "mini rice" in the English ingredients. I have more than one example from recent years and may pull all this together in a short article. This is not to pick on companies marketing Chinese millets, as English language ingredients labels for millets generally don't give you specifics. However I have noted that brands marketing Indian millets are more frequently using full names for millets these days. When I first found pearl millet flour in an Indian shop in Virginia in 2015, the ingredients just said "millet flour," so I had to look up the Indian name "bajri" (sometimes also seen as "bajra") to verify - the shopkeeper did not even know it was pearl millet! Anyway, if anyone else wishes to weigh in on the identity of the millet(s) in these two packages, please do. All the best, Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 1:44 PM Joni Kindwall-Moore < joni@snacktivistfoods.com> wrote:
Do you have them at your house? Can you cook them to see if the flavor and texture are different? It looks like two different proso millets by looking at the photo. Thanks
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 9:34 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Already had two requests for the full size, higher resolution image.
Here's an additional piece of information that might limit the range of answers, even though it probably would not change the appearance of a grain. The one on the right is a glutinous, sticky, or waxy variety of a millet. (Not all millets, and possibly only two, have cultivars producing glutinous grains.)
If you read Chinese, or know how to use OCR and translation utilities, you may be tempted to base your answer on that information. I plan to add discussion about that later, but the point of the exercise is to confirm or eliminate a perception I (as a consumer who has been informally tracking millets for sale with Chinese-language labels) have about this.
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:46 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Attached is a photo of a pair of clear packages of millet(s), side-by-side. The main language on the packages is Chinese, and since these are intended for market in the US, there is also some English. These were seen recently on the shelves of a local store specializing in Chinese and other international foods.
Here are two questions about the packages, for which you will not need to read Chinese (and the English text won't help): 1. Which millet or millets appear to be in the packages? 2. Do the grains in the two packages look the same or different?
After a while, I'll offer my take, but wanted to get your expert opinions, as best as you can tell from what is provided.
I can forward the full-sized image (20 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in.
TIA,
Don
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
-- Collab mailing list Collab@lists.millets2023.space https://lists.millets2023.space/mailman/listinfo/collab
Here's another side-by-side of Chinese millets. On the left is the same glutinous (aka waxy or sticky) millet labeled as glutinous foxtail ( 糯小米 nuò xiǎomǐ), but which at least some of us thought might be proso. On the right is a regular foxtail (小米 nuò xiǎomǐ). Both of them come from the province of Shanxi (山西), and both are packaged by the same company under the "Wise Wife" brand. The millet on the right hand looks like the foxtail I have purchased under other labels (in fact, I had some as part of breakfast today). Do you notice a difference in the grains in these side-by-side packages? I am not familiar with the glutinous foxtail from other brands, but I would have expected it to be roughly the same size as the package on the right, not DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 10:50 PM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Hi Joni, No I don't have these at home - the photo was taken in the store. (I do have proso and foxtail but fom other sources.) Cooking them might indeed tell us more. Sprouting and growing them out - if the seeds are viable - would be definitive.
Offline, one opinion was that these are proso, and the other that they are foxtail. My consumer's opinion is that they both look like proso.
Here's the reason for asking, which gets a little technical, but bear with me. The package on the left says 大黄米 (dàhuáng mǐ), literally big yellow staple-grain, which means proso millet, and on the right, it says 糯小米 (nuò xiǎomǐ), with nuò meaning glutinous (or waxy) and xiǎomǐ literally being meaning little staple-grain, which strictly speaking is foxtail millet. So I'm wondering if the packaging company played loose with its terms, and packed glutinous proso as glutinous foxtail? I think I've seen this once before by another company.
The Chinese term 米 (mǐ) is usually used for rice, such that you may read that 小米 (xiǎomǐ) means literally "little rice." However mǐ also has a wider sense, somewhat analogous to "corn" in English, which I tried to render here as staple-grain.
The "little rice" translation has led to some bilingual Chinese-English packaging literally using "little rice" or "mini rice" in the English ingredients. I have more than one example from recent years and may pull all this together in a short article.
This is not to pick on companies marketing Chinese millets, as English language ingredients labels for millets generally don't give you specifics. However I have noted that brands marketing Indian millets are more frequently using full names for millets these days. When I first found pearl millet flour in an Indian shop in Virginia in 2015, the ingredients just said "millet flour," so I had to look up the Indian name "bajri" (sometimes also seen as "bajra") to verify - the shopkeeper did not even know it was pearl millet!
Anyway, if anyone else wishes to weigh in on the identity of the millet(s) in these two packages, please do.
All the best,
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 1:44 PM Joni Kindwall-Moore < joni@snacktivistfoods.com> wrote:
Do you have them at your house? Can you cook them to see if the flavor and texture are different? It looks like two different proso millets by looking at the photo. Thanks
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 9:34 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Already had two requests for the full size, higher resolution image.
Here's an additional piece of information that might limit the range of answers, even though it probably would not change the appearance of a grain. The one on the right is a glutinous, sticky, or waxy variety of a millet. (Not all millets, and possibly only two, have cultivars producing glutinous grains.)
If you read Chinese, or know how to use OCR and translation utilities, you may be tempted to base your answer on that information. I plan to add discussion about that later, but the point of the exercise is to confirm or eliminate a perception I (as a consumer who has been informally tracking millets for sale with Chinese-language labels) have about this.
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:46 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Attached is a photo of a pair of clear packages of millet(s), side-by-side. The main language on the packages is Chinese, and since these are intended for market in the US, there is also some English. These were seen recently on the shelves of a local store specializing in Chinese and other international foods.
Here are two questions about the packages, for which you will not need to read Chinese (and the English text won't help): 1. Which millet or millets appear to be in the packages? 2. Do the grains in the two packages look the same or different?
After a while, I'll offer my take, but wanted to get your expert opinions, as best as you can tell from what is provided.
I can forward the full-sized image (20 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in.
TIA,
Don
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
-- Collab mailing list Collab@lists.millets2023.space https://lists.millets2023.space/mailman/listinfo/collab
(Accidentally hit a keyboard shortcut. Continuing...) ... and not the same size as the package on the left (which, again, looks to me like proso). Proso millet grains, in regular and glutinous varieties (which I have used) are similar in size. Anyway, I can forward the full-sized image (19 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Sat, Oct 12, 2024 at 4:34 PM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Here's another side-by-side of Chinese millets.
On the left is the same glutinous (aka waxy or sticky) millet labeled as glutinous foxtail ( 糯小米 nuò xiǎomǐ), but which at least some of us thought might be proso.
On the right is a regular foxtail (小米 nuò xiǎomǐ). Both of them come from the province of Shanxi (山西), and both are packaged by the same company under the "Wise Wife" brand.
The millet on the right hand looks like the foxtail I have purchased under other labels (in fact, I had some as part of breakfast today). Do you notice a difference in the grains in these side-by-side packages?
I am not familiar with the glutinous foxtail from other brands, but I would have expected it to be roughly the same size as the package on the right, not
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 10:50 PM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Hi Joni, No I don't have these at home - the photo was taken in the store. (I do have proso and foxtail but fom other sources.) Cooking them might indeed tell us more. Sprouting and growing them out - if the seeds are viable - would be definitive.
Offline, one opinion was that these are proso, and the other that they are foxtail. My consumer's opinion is that they both look like proso.
Here's the reason for asking, which gets a little technical, but bear with me. The package on the left says 大黄米 (dàhuáng mǐ), literally big yellow staple-grain, which means proso millet, and on the right, it says 糯小米 (nuò xiǎomǐ), with nuò meaning glutinous (or waxy) and xiǎomǐ literally being meaning little staple-grain, which strictly speaking is foxtail millet. So I'm wondering if the packaging company played loose with its terms, and packed glutinous proso as glutinous foxtail? I think I've seen this once before by another company.
The Chinese term 米 (mǐ) is usually used for rice, such that you may read that 小米 (xiǎomǐ) means literally "little rice." However mǐ also has a wider sense, somewhat analogous to "corn" in English, which I tried to render here as staple-grain.
The "little rice" translation has led to some bilingual Chinese-English packaging literally using "little rice" or "mini rice" in the English ingredients. I have more than one example from recent years and may pull all this together in a short article.
This is not to pick on companies marketing Chinese millets, as English language ingredients labels for millets generally don't give you specifics. However I have noted that brands marketing Indian millets are more frequently using full names for millets these days. When I first found pearl millet flour in an Indian shop in Virginia in 2015, the ingredients just said "millet flour," so I had to look up the Indian name "bajri" (sometimes also seen as "bajra") to verify - the shopkeeper did not even know it was pearl millet!
Anyway, if anyone else wishes to weigh in on the identity of the millet(s) in these two packages, please do.
All the best,
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 1:44 PM Joni Kindwall-Moore < joni@snacktivistfoods.com> wrote:
Do you have them at your house? Can you cook them to see if the flavor and texture are different? It looks like two different proso millets by looking at the photo. Thanks
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 9:34 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Already had two requests for the full size, higher resolution image.
Here's an additional piece of information that might limit the range of answers, even though it probably would not change the appearance of a grain. The one on the right is a glutinous, sticky, or waxy variety of a millet. (Not all millets, and possibly only two, have cultivars producing glutinous grains.)
If you read Chinese, or know how to use OCR and translation utilities, you may be tempted to base your answer on that information. I plan to add discussion about that later, but the point of the exercise is to confirm or eliminate a perception I (as a consumer who has been informally tracking millets for sale with Chinese-language labels) have about this.
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:46 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Attached is a photo of a pair of clear packages of millet(s), side-by-side. The main language on the packages is Chinese, and since these are intended for market in the US, there is also some English. These were seen recently on the shelves of a local store specializing in Chinese and other international foods.
Here are two questions about the packages, for which you will not need to read Chinese (and the English text won't help): 1. Which millet or millets appear to be in the packages? 2. Do the grains in the two packages look the same or different?
After a while, I'll offer my take, but wanted to get your expert opinions, as best as you can tell from what is provided.
I can forward the full-sized image (20 MB) offlist to anyone who wants to zoom in.
TIA,
Don
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
-- Collab mailing list Collab@lists.millets2023.space https://lists.millets2023.space/mailman/listinfo/collab
participants (2)
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Don Osborn -
Joni Kindwall-Moore