Crunch vs Crisp

February 26, 2020 1:03 PM

There’s an Entire Industry Dedicated to Making Foods Crispy, and It Is WILD "There’s a crowd on set that includes some of the Popeyes culinary team to give the stylist notes as the camera starts rolling. If the sandwich loses its recently fried glow, a stylist might dab it with oil in the places the light hits, which is exactly how I apply highlighter to my cheekbones. " via JohnnyWallflower on PoFi
posted by sperose (33 comments total)

Them Kirkland Kettle chips are too damn loud in my mouth, that's for sure. Good thing they're cooked with canola oil, which is poison to me, so I have to stop eating them before the bag is empty. I'll let you know how that works out.
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:37 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Crispy is great and all, but I feel it really comes into its own as a contrast against something soft; crispy bits on top of mac and cheese, the coating on croquettes, potato skin on a baked potato. The texture equivalent of sweet and sour. This is why crisps (brit here, sorry) are great in sandwiches with soft bread.
posted by stillnocturnal at 1:42 PM on February 26, 2020 [11 favorites]

Crispy... really comes into its own as a contrast against something soft

Crispy-gone-soggy all over again isn’t it? Because that’s what that’s really all about, the contrast.
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:56 PM on February 26, 2020

Ahhhh these are my people
posted by grandiloquiet at 2:21 PM on February 26, 2020

JohnnyWallflower on PoFi

PotatoFilter?
posted by supermedusa at 2:21 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Female consumers were more likely to notice food texture, especially crisp and crunch, than their male counterparts, whose attention first goes to food color and flavor. Don’t ask why! No one knows!! Maybe we’re trying to drown out the noise of men talking so much!!!

There's something to this
posted by emjaybee at 2:26 PM on February 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

People tend to use crispy and crunchy interchangeably, but there’s a difference, and it’s been studied. This isn’t a matter of opinion, okay?! Scientists recorded people eating a variety of crispy and crunchy foods—crackers, chips, apples—and found that crispy foods make easier breaks and higher-pitched sounds and are usually attacked with the front teeth, while crunchy are molars, lower-pitched.

godddddd Someone finally understands me. Triple threat of someone who has sensitive teeth, sensory defensiveness, and a small mouth I absolutely hate crunchy food. Crunchy cookies? abomination. Crunchy bacon? A waste. Hard taco shells are basically a torture device. The only crunchy food I'll eat, and I literally eat by the bagfull, is raw sugar snap peas. I'm a veritable rabbit if you give me fresh snap beans. Beetle also loves them so its a total win-win.
posted by FirstMateKate at 2:48 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Crispy is a potato chip. Crunchy is the bones of my vanquished enemies.

Either one works with a nice dip.
posted by klanawa at 3:25 PM on February 26, 2020 [10 favorites]

the Popeyes culinary team

I'm hoping this consisted of Big Larry, Pete the Gator, and Deep Fry Carl. All of whom should star in a series of animated adventures illustrating the Popeye's Way which is mostly selling ditch weed to high schoolers and trying to score in the parking lot after shift.

My Popeye's experiences may vary from the norm though.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:35 PM on February 26, 2020 [8 favorites]

like a fart in a porcelain bathtub
YOU POSTED THIS JUST BECAUSE OF THIS LINE DIDN'T YOU you sneaky chippy
posted by zinful at 3:49 PM on February 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

Your right to crunchy, crispy potato chips ends where my hearing begins -- unless you want to share, then it's alright.

There's many a teacher, flight attendant, theater patron and concert lover who would really love it if your snack-of-choice would get limp and soggy faster. Sensory overload is overrated when you aren't holding the bag.
posted by TrishaU at 3:53 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

You thought we lived in a world without chip surveillance?!?!

No, I assume that chip surveillance is part of the marketing madness water we swim in (heads above water so the chips don't get wet).
posted by betweenthebars at 4:01 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

"Crispy" gets my vote for the most annoying word in English. Crisp is a perfectly good word.

Don't even get me started on "crispiness".
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 4:58 PM on February 26, 2020

You can argue that ‘crispy’ is malformed because ‘crisp’ is already an adjective. I basically agree: see also the bane of ‘symmetrical’ when ‘symmetric’ exists etc.


But ‘crispiness’ is utterly cromulent— sometimes we need to talk about the aspect as a noun. The crispiness of the chip is delightful, and no other world will do!

There’s also a bunch of people who think ‘crisp’ is among the most delicious words to say it starts out hard way back in the throat, rolls up through the mouth, and ends width a nice plosive pop up front.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:08 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

crispinessitude?
posted by sjswitzer at 5:09 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Why not just crispness? Serious question.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 5:40 PM on February 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

> You can argue that ‘crispy’ is malformed because ‘crisp’ is already an adjective. I basically agree: see also the bane of ‘symmetrical’ when ‘symmetric’ exists etc.

We certainly wouldn't prefer to preemtively exhaust our syllabic rationings, wouldn't we?
posted by ardgedee at 5:46 PM on February 26, 2020

"Level of crispification" has always worked for me.
posted by pompomtom at 5:56 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

I prefer my foods to be both crispity and crunchity.
posted by darksasami at 5:57 PM on February 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

Why not just crispness? Serious question.

Oh man I flubbed it and missed what I now assume was your point. yes ‘crispness’ is generally preferable. I don’t even know anymore maybe it should be crispality. There’s a whole bunch of words with bizarre alternate morphologies and while (as a descriptivist) I hesitate to call them wrong, I don’t have to like them!
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:18 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love that the food scientist who pioneered crispiness studies had such an onomatopoeic name. Alina Szczesniak.
posted by mikelynch at 6:39 PM on February 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Why not just crispness?
More seriously, maybe because /spn/ is a rather uncomfortable consonant cluster. Maybe 'crispiness' was formed via anaptyxis to fix that problem, and 'crispy' is a matching back formation. Though etymology online suggests that by the 15c., -y just makes adjectives adjectivier, using crispy as a key example. Also the Latin ancestor is "crispus", which would decline to "crispi" and "crispe", perhaps influencing things.

Maybe one of our linguists can enlighten us!
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:41 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm okay with describing a fall day with a hint of a chill in the clear, bright air as crisp. Crispy, not so much.

Crispy is what goes in the mouth. Crisp... huh. Apples can be crisp, but, crispy? Maybe utterly unnatural applications of food stuff get crispy? Mangled, deep fried, glazed with cheeze-food powders means crispy? Oh god, help me out of this rabbit hole.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:29 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

As an olive branch to any linguistic (a crunchy word, I'd say, not crispy) warfare I might have started, let me off this: I've been attempting to make my fried chicken crispier, and to maintain said crispiness as long as possible. It's always a work in progress, and I'm always willing to listent to other ideas, but so far, what I've got is

flour mix: half strong wheat flour, half corn starch, salt, spices, baking powder

egg wash: eggs, buttermilk (or milk mixed with vinegar), hot sauce (usually Crystal)

chicken goes egg--> flour --> egg --> flour, fry at 175-180C or as close to as possible. If serving later, cool on racks, pack in wax paper. Stays pretty decently crunchy after cooling.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:39 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Well, I'm hungry now, thanks for that...
posted by Windopaene at 7:49 PM on February 26, 2020

Crunchy is the bones of my vanquished enemies. ... works with a nice dip.

Especially when paired with the lamentations of their women.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:40 PM on February 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Why not just crispness? Serious question.

That's a lot of consonants in a row! Crispiness rolls off the tongue more easily.
posted by WaylandSmith at 10:09 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Why not just crispness?

doesn't sound enough like "Chris penis"
posted by a car full of lions at 10:54 PM on February 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Foods treated with heat are 'Crispy': Potato Crisps/Chips, Bacon, Popcorn, Baked Kale etc

Foods which make an audible Crunch because they are naturally brittle are 'Crunchy': Fresh Apples, Celery Uncooked Corn on the Cob etc

I will be taking no questions about Peanut Brittle at this time.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:29 AM on February 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I prefer "crispialitiness", but unfortunately it fails the definitive test of a word's acceptability because it cannot be used in Words With Friends.
posted by TedW at 6:01 AM on February 27, 2020

fold-overs, as in, the chips that fold in the fryer like shells.

Anyone else dislike eating "folds?" If the chip is big enough,I break the fold with my fingers before eating and eat each piece separately. If I can't break it I just put it back into the bag and reach for another one.

I also dislike brown chips and put them back into that bag. I don't know if they're overcooked or the bad brown part of a potato so I never eat them.

The Boulder Canyon brand of chips that's sporadically available has a great line of avocado oil fried crinkle cut chips that's just extraordinary.
posted by vivzan at 7:23 AM on February 27, 2020

Curious that Kettle chip come up so early in their tale. Seems like the perfect snack to show cirspy-gone-wrong. Kettle chips aren't cripsy, they're like this other texture that is partially stale, partially dried out, and unpleasant.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:14 AM on February 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

For me, crispiness is purely a textural thing: Either it has sufficient brittleness to be crispy or it doesn't. Crispness is more of an overall sensory experience. Apples are crisp not only because the flesh has a light texture but because it's also sweet and moist. They would not be crisp if they tasted like turkey gravy. Croutons can be crisp but toast is at best crispy.
posted by ardgedee at 9:49 AM on February 27, 2020 [1 favorite]