We love crisp food. Chefs know this. Food companies know this. We’re seduced by the snap of a carrot, the crackle of a cracker, and the crunchy deep-fried coating on chicken and fish with its promise of moist, tender flesh within.
What is it about crisp food that is so alluring?
“There are lots of connotations with crisp. It matches with fresh,” said Zata Vickers, professor of food science at the University of Minnesota. Crisp lettuce or celery is associated with freshness.
But calories also are a factor.
“We like crispy snack foods because they’re higher calorie. We are born able to detect calorie density and we learn to like foods that have that density. It’s wired into us,” she explained. Think of it like this, she suggested: “If you’re a monkey and you have a half day to spend eating and you spend all your time eating celery, you’re going nowhere.”
But it’s not only caloric snack foods that appeal to us. In apples, “crispness is probably the major thing that correlates with people’s liking them,” said Jim Luby, professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota. If you give people a bunch of different apples to taste, and some people prefer sweet apples, others tart, and still others aromatic, he said, “the common denominator is: All like them crisp.”
Luby is one of the breeders of the Honeycrisp apple, a popular variety known for its exceptional crispness.
A fundamental attribute of crispness is the sound it makes. We like foods that deliver freshness, calories or sweetness and we use sound as a cue, Vickers said.
The Snack Food Association reported that in 2005 Americans purchased 6.6 million pounds of savory snack foods, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, popcorn and other salty snacks.
Snack foods may have the corner on our cravings, but restaurants know how to entice us too. At M Henry, 5707 N. Clark St., breakfast is the restaurant’s most popular meal. The signature breakfast item, blackberry bliss cakes, is sprinkled with granola. The combination of soft, fluffy hot cakes, melting vanilla-flavored mascarpone, crunchy homemade granola and tart blackberries provides an assortment of flavors and textures, explained co-owner Michael Henry.
Of the breakfast meat options on the menu, bacon is No. 1, Henry said.
“We’ve just added a second bacon item,” he added, which is sprinkled with turbinado sugar to give it a candied crust that makes its sweeter and crispier.
“We’ve tried turkey bacon, but it just doesn’t cut it,” Henry said. “People like the real thing.”
For Vickers, bacon is an excellent example of our ability to detect high-density calorie foods.
“Bacon has a bazillion calories,” she said.
We also like crisp foods because we associate them with fun. Chipmakers are “selling pleasure, not nutrition,” said Vickers.
Angela Liu, president of Crispy Green, is trying to provide a more healthful alternative with her freeze-dried fruit snacks. “Customers crave the crispness of snacks,” she said. “A new generation can grow up with a different snack.”
Liu explained that the crunchiness of her product “is not created by the unhealthy process of frying or high-temperature baking that destroys the nutrients and enzymes.”
A chemist, Liu said that the crispness is created by low-temperature drying that retains the molecular integrity of a product. Apples, apricots, peaches and the newest addition to her snack-food line, pineapple, come in individual-size serving bags so they can be finished before reabsorbing moisture and becoming soggy. (Visit crispygreen.com to purchase and find stores that sell the product).
Crispiness adds an aesthetic element for chefs.
Marshall Shafkowitz, vice president of academic affairs at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, said, “We teach students how to cook things properly to retain crispness, nutrition and color.” Overcooking destroys these qualities, he added.
“When we teach students to produce a full plated dessert, we teach them to use a crisp component — a cookie or garnish like a small sugar twirl,” he explained. “It creates complexity. We don’t want to just have mush on the plate. Creme brulee, with its crisp sugar crust, is a perfect example.”
“Almost every dish we serve has an element of crispy,” said chef Graham Elliot Bowles of Avenues. “Crispness leads to the guest feeling that something is fresh or alive.” An example is Bowles’ scallops poached in brown butter with melted leek ravioli and raisin puree. The dish is topped with candied prosciutto chips, made by brushing sliced prosciutto with simple syrup and baking it.
It doesn’t have to be that fancy, Bowles said. “You can crust chicken with corn flakes and potato chips or fish with nuts like cashews or whatever you have on hand,” he said. Bowles likes to use CornNuts, “the kind you buy in the gas station” or convenience store. They work great with pork roast: Chop them in a food processor, then rub your pork tenderloin or other roast with honey and roll it in the chopped CornNuts before roasting.
“There are different ways to achieve crispness,” Bowles added. “Nature gives us celery, but also allows us to look at what we have and make it crispy.”
So, instead of taking the skin off fish, leave it on and make it crispy. For a 4-ounce piece of fish, make three cuts in the skin and then saute the fish in a pan over low to medium heat.
You can also do this with meat or poultry. Lightly score the skin of meat or poultry — makes cuts about 1 /2 inch apart — and start roasting at 500 degrees for 20-30 minutes, then lower to 300 degrees and finish cooking. This will render the fat under the skin and leave the skin crispy.
Crisp foods promise us freshness, calories, sweetness and fun. Is it any wonder we seek them out?
Adding that crunch
Here are some of the Good Eating staff’s favorite crispy ingredients:
Japanese panko crumbs
Chopped peanuts
Buttered cracker crumbs
Candied pecans or almonds
Canned French-fried onions
Fresh bacon bits
Chow mein noodles
Jicama
Crystallized ginger
Crumbled tortilla chips
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Yes, even wines can be crisp
Crisp also is a concept in wine, said Marshall Shafkowitz, vice president of academic affairs at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. Crisp describes a wine with “clear, light flavor. It freshens your mouth and cleans your palate,” he said.
– Crisp wines have a high amount of mineral content, explained Danny Parrott, the managing partner at Hillgrove Cellars Fine Wine and Gourmet Shop in Western Springs. They are generally fermented in stainless steel and not oaked.
-“They are the best wines to pair with food,” Parrott said. “These wines will complement food rather than compete with food.”
-Crisp wine is almost always white. Some examples are pinot gris, dry riesling and pinot blanc from the Alsace region in France and pinot grigio from Italy. Sauvignon blanc from about anywhere it is made — France, New Zealand, California — is among the best choices for crispness. Parrott said that these wines are perfect for cocktail parties or sitting on the patio on a hot day.
— Susan Taylor
Crispy baked peppered bacon
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 18 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
You can vary this recipe from the Tribune archives by using granulated sugar or a light brushing of maple syrup in place of the brown sugar.
8 strips bacon
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground red pepper
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a jellyroll pan with aluminum foil; place wire rack inside pan. Arrange bacon on rack; bake 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, stir together brown sugar and pepper; sprinkle over bacon (some may fall into pan). Bake until bacon is browned and cooked as desired, about 8 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving: 108 calories, 44% of calories from fat, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 14 mg cholesterol, 10 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 297 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Ruby red shrimp
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Adapted from “The Young Man & the Sea,” by David Pasternak and Ed Levine. Make sure the oil stays at 350 degrees while frying each batch. We tested this recipe with the shells on, but you may remove them and then coat the shrimp. A dip first in beaten eggs would help the flour mixture adhere better.
6 cups olive oil
2 cups canola oil
1 1/2 cups fine milled or cake flour
1 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 teaspoons each: coarse salt, freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon each: ground red pepper, sugar
4 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs mint
4 baby artichokes, outer leaves removed, thinly sliced crosswise
1 pound ruby red or other shrimp, shell-on
3 tablespoon capers, drained
1. Combine the olive and canola oils in a Dutch oven to reach 8 inches; heat over medium heat to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, combine the flour, cornstarch, 2 teaspoons each of the salt and black pepper, ground red pepper and sugar in a small bowl; set aside.
2. Deep-fry the rosemary and mint sprigs in the oil until crispy, about 3 minutes; transfer to a paper towel-lined platter. Add the artichoke slices; fry until golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the platter; season with 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper.
3. Coat the shrimp in the flour/cornstarch mixture, shaking off excess flour; fry in batches until golden brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the platter. Season with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Add capers to the oil; fry until crisp, about 1 minute. Transfer to platter.
Nutrition information per serving:
645 calories, 76% of calories from fat, 55 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 168 mg cholesterol, 19 g carbohydrates, 20 g protein, 772 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Crispy corn-encrusted pork loin
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Standing time: 10 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
We used CornNuts to coat this roast. The recipe was developed in the test kitchen by Lisa Schumacher, who borrowed the idea from a dish served at Avenues restaurant.
3 packages (1.7 ounces each) crunchy corn snack
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons ancho or chipotle chili powder, see note
1 teaspoon each: ground cumin, coarse salt
3 tablespoons honey
1 boneless pork loin roast, about 1 1/2 pounds
1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the crunchy corn snack, chili powder, cumin and salt in a food processor; process to chop finely. Transfer to a plate; set aside.
2. Brush the honey over the roast. Roll the meat in the corn mixture, pressing so coating adheres to the meat. Transfer to a roasting pan. Roast 10 minutes; lower the heat to 350 degrees. Roast until thermometer reads 155 degrees, about 30-35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.
Note: Ancho and/or chipotle chili powders are available in Hispanic markets, spice shops and the spice aisle of some supermarkets. Substitute regular chili powder, if necessary.
Nutrition information per serving:
323 calories, 41% of calories from fat, 15 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 67 mg cholesterol, 27 g carbohydrates, 21 g protein, 489 mg sodium, 2 g fib
Breakaway croutons
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes
Yield: 1 cup
“Croutons take only a few minutes to make and they taste so much better than store-bought ones, plus you get the satisfaction of using up old stale bread,” writes Eric Gower in “The Breakaway Cook.” Float these on top of soups or sprinkle on salads.
1 teaspoon each: unsalted butter, extra-virgin olive oil, freshly ground star anise, freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
1 cup cubed (1/4 inch) stale sourdough or other bread
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Melt the butter and the olive oil in a small skillet over low heat. Add the spices; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the bread. Increase heat to medium; cook, stirring, until croutons are crisp, about 5 minutes. Season with the salt. Store leftovers in a jar up to 1 week.
Nutrition information per serving:
11 calories, 49% of calories from fat, 1 g fat, 0.2 g saturated fat, 1 mg cholesterol, 1 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g protein, 75 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
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WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CRISPY FOODS?
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