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 Granularity (also called graininess) is the degree to which a material or system is composed of distinction (philosophy), distinguishable pieces, granular material, "granules" or grain, "grains" (metaphorically). It can either refer to the exten ...

resistance to

jaw The jaws are a pair of opposable articulated structures at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth ...

action. While crispness is difficult to maintain, crunchiness is difficult to overcome. Crunchy foods are associated with freshness, particularly in vegetables. In bready foods, crunchiness can instead be associated with staleness. Other foods regularly associated with the sensation include nuts and sweets.

Relationship to sound

Crispness and crunchiness could each be "assessed on the basis of

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

alone, on the basis of oral-tactile clues alone, or on the basis of a combination of auditory and oral-tactile information". An acoustic

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...

of 1.9 kHz seems to mark the threshold between the two sensations, with crunchiness at frequencies below, and crispness at frequencies above.

References

Gustatory system Gustation {{food-stub

Relationship to sound

See also

References