Crunchiness
{{Short description|Characteristic of foods}}
{{Redirect|Crunchy|a character of the animated series Adventure Time|The Pajama War|the chocolate bar|Crunchie}}
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.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/health/mary-roach-on-studying-food-and-how-humans-eat-it.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326075628/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/health/mary-roach-on-studying-food-and-how-humans-eat-it.html |archive-date=26 March 2013 |title=Mary Roach on Studying How Humans Chew and Eat | last=Roach | first=Mary | author-link=Mary Roach | date=26 March 2013 |work=The New York Times |access-date=28 March 2013}}{{Cite journal|last1=Vincent|first1=J. F. V.|last2=Saunders|first2=D. E. J.|last3=Beyts|first3=P.|date=2002|title=The Use of Critical Stress Intensity Factor to Quantify "Hardness" and "Crunchiness" Objectively|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-4603.2002.tb01341.x|journal=Journal of Texture Studies|language=en|volume=33|issue=2|pages=149–159|doi=10.1111/j.1745-4603.2002.tb01341.x|issn=1745-4603|url-access=subscription}} In bready foods, crunchiness can instead be associated with staleness. Other foods regularly associated with the sensation include nuts{{Cite journal|last1=Saklar|first1=S.|last2=Ungan|first2=S.|last3=Katnas|first3=S.|date=1999|title=Instrumental Crispness and Crunchiness of Roasted Hazelnuts and Correlations with Sensory Assessment|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb12271.x|journal=Journal of Food Science|language=en|volume=64|issue=6|pages=1015–1019|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb12271.x|issn=1750-3841|url-access=subscription}} and sweets.
Relationship to sound
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".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BTR7VEJPDWAC&dq=crunchiness&pg=PA384|title=Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and Practices|isbn=9780834217522|last1=Lawless|first1=Harry T.|last2=Heymann|first2=Hildegarde|date=1999-08-31|publisher=Springer }} 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.
{{Wiktionary|crunchy}}