I have a recipe for oat and honey bread and it mentions the word 'tack'. Please can you tell me what this means? It says the following; "It should start coming together and getting more tack and less sticky after about 5 minutes"
1 Answer
I am not sure there is common meaning of "tack" that makes sense in this context. I suspect it is a typo for "tacky", but even so, tacky implies a certain amount of stickiness.
On the other hand, the outcome that is indicated is clear. When your dough first forms, it sticks to almost anything: the sides of the bowl, the counter, your hands, leaving a residue. As you knead and develop the gluten in the dough, it will prefer to stick to itself, rather than these surfaces.
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1That is likely the answer. I will add to that by saying that there is a qualified difference between stickyness, and tackyness; something tacky will, as I understand the term, adhere to e.g. your hand, but be fairly easy to remove. When it is sticky, removal would take more effort.– razumnyFeb 27, 2014 at 11:57
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2For bread, sticky is that you touch it, pull your hand away and some comes with it. Tacky is that you touch it, pull your hand away it will pull with it for a moment but eventually give and stay with the dough....if that makes sense.– rfuscaFeb 27, 2014 at 16:45