Science hacks for crispy snacks

Want to get super-crispy food at home? Maximize these two crisp-making qualities.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆-𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆:

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 (𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲) 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 & 𝗵𝗼𝘄-𝘁𝗼𝘀:

𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰:
-Lisa Duizer, Associate Professor & Chair of the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph
-Eric Decker, Professor & Head of the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

MinuteFood is created by Kate Yoshida, Arcadi Garcia & Bill Mead, and produced by Neptune Studios LLC.

[ericvilas]

Crispy is a thin layer, crunchy is when the entirety of it has that texture.

[thejamesthird]

The difference is that crispy food is only crispy while it’s hot/warm. Crunchy food is crunchy at cool or room temperatures. No one can tell me otherwise.

[ness]

To use an example to set apart crispiness from crunchiness, let’s look at ice/snow. Long thing sheets of ice, are crispy, as they brake easily upon the tooth, and shatter into smaller pieces. Crunchiness, is like snow, or the ice specifically made to chew. It is a food item that is broken into small bits specifically by the Molars, and you can chew it just a little bit.

[Aquillyne]

What a great episode. Optimising my cooking with science. Yes.

[meg]

This channel is very underrated! I'm not even into cooking nor interested in it but man! This was very entertaining to watch.

[minheepark]

I think that “crispy” is more like “first to third bite” crunch while “crunchy” is sort of like 3-10 bites of crunch

[cullenhutchison]

I personally think of crunchiness as the concentration of individual breakage sounds that occur when applying pressure to (e.g. biting) something and crispiness as the degree of inflexibility.

It sounds more complicated than it does in my head, but that is what comes to my mind when describing food. So for example, fries should be crispy but not crunchy, bell pepper strips should be crunchy but not crispy, and tortilla chips should be both.

[thehyperscientist]

I'd say crunchiness is the quality of how hard a dried food is to chew. More crunchiness definitely leads to more crispiness, but too much could lead to an undesireable hardness when eating

[JonathanKayne]

So about the oil, I don't recommend using cast iron to fry with at home. It's much better and easier to use a wok if you can. It's cleaner (the sides catch splatter), uses less oil (the corners of the pot is where you can't use the hot oil) and it's easier to control the food with a spider since you can scoop easier.
Just make sure your oil is hot enough and account for the fact that the temperature will drop when you place food in the oil.

[kattthewarrior]

Can you talk about why water taste weird when it's been sitting.

[unknownblackhole]

I rate the crispiness of this video 11/10.

[kaninepete]

I feel that crispy is high pitched, crunchy is low pitched and requires more force to break.

[Amstroid]

This is why we in Belgium double fry our Belgian Fries 🙂

[Decia]

My definition is crispy is just the exterior. Like chicken skins. Its dried and loud on the skin but soft and succulent on the inside. Crunchy is all the way through. Thats how I personally differentiate the two

[timmowarner]

This was my favourite episode so far! I learned the science AND it was very useful info for cooking!

[incorporealnuance]

A long time ago, I worked at a gas station with a Chester's chicken. I think it was one of those that hadn't completely given up yet, so it was still edible. They always taught the employees to double-fry, though never told them _why_ that makes it better.

[lemonz]

Please do a video on astringent flavors and fermented protein products (ie fish sauce, soy sauce, etc).

[wihatmi]

I just learned that fried pickles are a thing. Very interesting. Never heard about it. But I'm willing to try.

[Jobobn]

This is exactly the type of episode I needed. Thank so much!

[..]

Crispy is the outer, crunchy is the inner. Here's a ""sushi"" place technique for hour-long crispy: mix eggs, milk and cornstarch, batter your food in that, coat in panko, fry: it insulates inner moisture.