



How long do you dunk your Oreo cookie? Is it a quick in and out, just coating cookie and preserving maximum crunch? Or do you like to linger and let all that milk soak in a turn that Oreo into a mushy mess? Or maybe you’re someone who crumbles up Oreos into a bowl and pours the milk straight over them like a big bowl of delicious Oreo cookie cereal. We won’t judge. We promise.

Last year, over at the Utah State University’s Splash Lab, they decided to answer a question for the ages: “How long do you need to dunk an Oreo to reach maximum milk absorption?” Turns out there’s an exact amount of time for the optimal Oreo cookie dunk, as discovered by actual academics in an actual lab. This, by the way, is the sort of science we can get behind.

They found that there’s a saturation point for most cookies. Oreos in particular soak in 50 percent of the total amount of milk they are able to absorb in the first second of dunking. One second later and that Oreo is at 80 percent capacity. Then, oddly, the cookie stops soaking up the milk during the duration of the third second. And, finally, the Oreo reaches full milky saturation at four seconds exactly.

Which, count to four seconds right now. That’s an absurdly short amount of time. “This data indicates that for the tested cookies, keeping your cookie in the glass any longer than five seconds does not lead to any additional milk entering the cookies,” the study informs us. That’s it, folks! No more milk is going to soften up that cookie. Who had four seconds as the optimal amount of time to dunk your Oreo?

It should be noted that this study was performed with 2 percent milk which does make a difference. The study notes that the fat to water content of the dunking liquid matters. The higher the fat content of the milk, the more fat is in the way of the water from being absorbed. So an almond milk, or the like, may soak that Oreo faster.

The good people in the Splash lab took their study one step further to determine when the cookie crumbled from too long of a dunk. Turns out that an Oreo can withstand the milk for five whole minutes before the cookies start to break down entirely. And that sounds like the perfect amount of time to eat a bowl of Oreo cookie cereal. Who needs Oreo O’s anyway!?

(Via Mental Floss)