How do you eat a cookie?

[Kent Wang]

Do you tear off a piece and put in your mouth or just bite out of the cookie? This goes for brownies, some sandwiches and other similarly shaped foods. I prefer to bite directly but I asked a few tearers why they preferred their method and they explained to me it is more elegant and refined. This seems a bit strange to me as it is also more messy as a lot of crumbs fall out from tearing.

[fifi]

You have tapped in to one of the icons of my childhood. If you aren't old enough you might not remember the old Oreo commercial . . . "Oh, a kiddle eat the middle of an Oreo first and leave the chocolate cookie outsides 'til last. How do you do it? You unscrew it."

I actually bite cookies directly. That goes for sandwiches as well. If a "sandwich" is too unwieldly to bite, I use a knife and fork. I put sandwich in quotes because if you can't pick it up and bite it, it really isn't a sandwich but a plated portion on bread.

[chezcherie]

the "tear and eat" system probably evolved from the "only butter one small piece of the roll" etiquette, i'm guessing.

i bite.

[SweetSide]

To complicate matters -- I do both depending upon the cookie

Small cookies, I'll bite (or just shove in my mouth whole -- no crumbs that way! )

Large cookies, I'll break in half, then bite the halves.

If the object is wider than my mouth -- cookie, brownie, bread, sandwich, whatever -- I cut it or break it or tear it so that there is a "side" that is narrower than my mouth. Thus, with sandwiches, the only way to cut them is on the diagonal and eat from the points...

[I_call_the_duck]

Like everything with me, it depends. If it's one of those giant cookies or a really hard cookie, I'll tend to break it into more manageable pieces before eating. Otherwise I bite.

[Knicke]

I also do both, but I think for different reasons.

Sometimes, I just want to snarf down the cookie. And I bite it. BIIIIG bites.

Other times, often with a chewy or soft-textured cookie, I want to revel in the texture. So I will pinch, squeeze, manhandle pieces of it. And shove them into my mouth...

Just call me "cookie monster".

Sandwiches - I bite directly. PB+J's are eaten in this way: nibble off the crusts. Even it up into a square shape. Take a bit out of each corner. Even it up into a square shape...and so on ad infinitum...

[WolfChef]

As long as I have my teeth...I bite.

[Kent Wang]

I've noticed that most tearers are girls. One girl speculated that biting might mess up one's lipstick. But I also suspect that more girls (than boys) are concerned about etiquette.

[fifi]

Is there an etiquette component here? I am all over etiquette but I don't recall any "rules" about this. Of course, if that big honking sandwich has you opening your trap like a braying donkey you might want to think about a knife and fork.

[cakewalk]

It all depends on the size of the cookie in relation to the size of my coffee cup, because (I admit), I'm a dunker! Cookies have become enormous. Humongous. In order to dip them properly into one's coffee cup, they must be cut down to size!! Not that there's anything wrong with that.

And if there's no coffee, then I'm usually a tearer. Or, more accurately, a breaker.

[BeeZee]

Let's say it's a cookie with some kind of morsel in the middle (like a choc kiss or 1/2 of a nut)...I eat around that center and save it for last! I like to make sure my last bite has the highest proportion of "goodies", whether nuts, candy, jelly, fruit, etc.

And the tearing off pieces to pop in your mouth is more of a "girlie" thing to preserve lipstick. Although it doesn't work with cookies like Mexican Wedding Cakes, where you just hope to get it into your mouth without getting powdered sugar all over yourself!

[Rehovot]

The lipstick problem perplexes me... Aren't these girls biting with their teeth??

I found myself snapping off bits of a cookie and nibbling on it for an hour--whether I'm just too cheap to buy more than one cookie, or because I was at a fancy cafe, I'm not sure.

[MT-Tarragon]

Is there an etiquette component here? I am all over etiquette but I don't recall any "rules" about this. Of course, if that big honking sandwich has you opening your trap like a braying donkey you might want to think about a knife and fork. 

←

Cookies, like crackers or sandwiches, are a finger food. As a finger food, they are not supposed to appear in formal dining. In informal dining, any finger food, once removed from the serving platter, may be eaten with the fingers. I bite my cookies and sandwiches. IANAEE...

[NWKate]

I generally don't notice except for the "Little Schoolboy" cookies- First, I bite their little heads off and go from there!

Kate

[jgm]

I'm a biter, except when I have a cookie that's coated with powdered sugar, or that I know from experience will crumble quite a bit. In that instance, rather than have powdered sugar or crumbs all over my clothing, I'll break it into bite-sized pieces over a plate or napkin.

Oreos, I eat only in private so that I can be a child again. The middle absolutely must be eaten first; the first wafer is eaten in bites; the second one is shoved whole, into my mouth. And I absolutely do not dunk it in anything. Vanilla or any other flavor of sandwich cookies are eaten just like a regular cookie. (Oreos are special.)

[acautrell]

Brownies and other squares usually get torn.

Small cookies I'll bite. Today for lunch I had a large chocolate chip cookie--it got snapped in half first.

I never really thought about it too much as an etiquette issue, just the way I prefer to eat them.

[srhcb]

I've noticed that most tearers are girls. One girl speculated that biting might mess up one's lipstick. But I also suspect that more girls (than boys) are concerned about etiquette.

←

I have no regard for lipstick, and very little for etiquette, but in consideration of decency I tear messy or sloppy items into smaller pieces so as not to mess up my luxuriant Fu Manchu style mustache.

I suspect other men with facial hair do the same thing?

SB (hasn't been able to eat an ice cream cone in many years)

[jgarner53]

Don't bother with lipstick. I bite into my cookies, brownies, sandwiches with gusto!

[prasantrin]

Definitely bite. If the cookie is soft and large (like most of the ones available at coffee shops and bakeries these days), I tear, but I usually bite. And after the first bite, I must eat around the first bite in order to create a straight line. I'm a little anal that way.

[BarbaraY]

I just bite into them, even if they're extra big, but I hardly ever buy any cookies except Oreos. I can consume half a bag at one sitting.

[Ling]

I eat a cookie quickly. And then I eat six or seven more.

I break a soft cookie in half, then bite. I bite hard cookies (messy crumbs). I bite brownies. Mmm...brownies. Must have one now.

[misstenacity]

XXL-sized bakery cookies (the soft chewy kind like molasses or oatmeal): tear with fingers and pop each piece into my mouth.

I tend to tear around the outside, as this is the least chewy portion, so that at the end I have the best part - the ultra-chewy middle bite.

Tearing DOES seem to have a dieter's connotation - you are picking at your food to make it last longer or give yourself the option to stop at any point (?). As if I'm going to stop half way through a triple-ginger soft cookie at the coffee shop, whether or not it weighs a half pound! Yum!

Andrea

http://tenacity.net