Crunchiness

Crunchy foods

Crunchiness is the sensation of muffled grinding of a foodstuff. Crunchiness differs from crispness in that a crisp item is quickly atomized, while a crunchy one offers sustained, granular resistance to jaw action. While crispness is difficult to maintain, crunchiness is difficult to overcome.

Crunchy foods are associated with freshness, particularly in vegetables.[1][2] In bready foods, crunchiness can instead be associated with staleness. Other foods regularly associated with the sensation include nuts[3] and sweets.

Relationship to sound

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Crispness and crunchiness could each be "assessed on the basis of sound alone, on the basis of oral-tactile clues alone, or on the basis of a combination of auditory and oral-tactile information".[4] An acoustic frequency of 1.9 kHz seems to mark the threshold between the two sensations, with crunchiness at frequencies below, and crispness at frequencies above.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Roach, Mary (26 March 2013). "Mary Roach on Studying How Humans Chew and Eat". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  2. ^ Vincent, J. F. V.; Saunders, D. E. J.; Beyts, P. (2002). "The Use of Critical Stress Intensity Factor to Quantify "Hardness" and "Crunchiness" Objectively". Journal of Texture Studies. 33 (2): 149–159. doi:10.1111/j.1745-4603.2002.tb01341.x. ISSN 1745-4603.
  3. ^ Saklar, S.; Ungan, S.; Katnas, S. (1999). "Instrumental Crispness and Crunchiness of Roasted Hazelnuts and Correlations with Sensory Assessment". Journal of Food Science. 64 (6): 1015–1019. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb12271.x. ISSN 1750-3841.
  4. ^ Lawless, Harry T.; Heymann, Hildegarde (1999-08-31). Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and Practices. Springer. ISBN 9780834217522.