[brewmichigan]

I would be very, very, very careful about putting drain cleaner (even if it says it's 100% lye) in anything touching food.

Lye is the ultimate multitasker... Drain cleaner, soap, bagels, bodies, whatever you need.

[bo]

You just need to make sure it's pure sodium hydroxide. It can burn you, so be careful. Here's where you can get some lye used for soap making.


http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-25/2-lbs-Technical-Grade/Detail

[bo]

I guess I need to update this. That company no longer sells the "technical grade" lye, but they do sell food grade. Here's a link to that. It's not too bad, but as always shipping hits you pretty hard.


 [size=78%]http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-3/4-lbs-Food-Grade/Detail[/size]

[tschmidlin]

I got my lye from dudadiesel
http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=hydroxide

[Jimmy K]

I would be very, very, very careful about putting NEVER PUT drain cleaner (even if it says it's 100% lye) in anything touching food.

Unless it is food grade drain cleaner.

[Slowbrew]

I've always wanted to try using lye with my pretzels but I don't have any and I'm not sure I want 2lbs minus .5 to 1 oz. sitting around.  My wife will put up with a lot hobbies from me but I don't think homemade soap is one of them and 2lbs of lye makes a lot of pretzels.

One question I have is, how do you dispose of it when you're finished?  Do you have to neutralize it somehow?  Does your local municipality appreciate caustics in the sanitary sewer system?  I've only ever used it to "remove" rats from under the corn crib as a kid (Dad thought cans of cyanide seemed too dangerous  ).

Paul

[euge]

If it (lye) is used as drain cleaner in higher concentrations then a little lye-water ought to be relatively benign, though hopefully the roaches will suffer...

[bo]

If it (lye) is used as drain cleaner in higher concentrations then a little lye-water ought to be relatively benign, though hopefully the roaches will suffer...

For bagels, it's only about a teaspoon per quart. Pretzels require a higher concentration.

[euge]

OK, those that have made them- do you let the poached dough cool before the oven?

I wasn't sure since the dough was in the water in two batches so 4 bagels weren't steaming and I let the other four cool for a minute or so. Didn't seem to notice much of a difference.

[bo]

It's been a while but as soon as I filled a pan, into the oven they went. I would say that the last one dried about a minute.  You do want to shake off as much water as possible so it doesn't pool in the pan.


Actually the steam should help the crust a little.

[punatic]

I would be very, very, very careful about putting drain cleaner (even if it says it's 100% lye) in anything touching food.

Too late (by years)!  Am I going to die?

Ace Hardware

[denny]

Too late (by years)!  Am I going to die?

Ace Hardware

Why yes, you are....but we all are!  No one here gets out alive....

[tygo]

Try buying lye these days. I ended up using baking soda.

I saw a tip in Cooks Illustrated a few months back to bake the baking soda to convert it from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate which is a stronger base.  Not as strong as lye but a good substitute according to the article.  Haven't tried it yet myself.

Interesting: Can you provide some specifics as to time, temp and quantity in the water.

I'll have to dig back through the issues to find it.  But here's an article that describes the process as well:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curious.html

[bo]

Copied, pasted and saved.

Thanks, Tygo.

[james]

Timely post.  I have to work on my homemade bagels since I just moved away from the only store that sells bagels that were close enough to be called real bagels.