FAQs
It is 100% pure sodium hydroxide, which can make all sorts of things like detergent, laundry detergent, or deodorant products. The main reason soapmakers use lye in their soaps is that it has many benefits over other ingredients, such as salt or synthetic chemicals found in many non-natural soaps today.
What are the ingredients in lye baking? ›
Doughs are typically dipped in a solution made up of 3% to 4% (by weight) lye-to-water before baking. In addition, bakers use food-grade lye, which is a higher grade lye with fewer impurities than technical grade sodium hydroxide.
What are the raw materials of lye? ›
A lye is an alkali metal hydroxide. Traditionally it was obtained by using rainwater to leach wood ashes, which are strongly alkaline and highly soluble in water, of their potassium hydroxide (KOH), producing lye water, a caustic basic solution.
What is a lye solution for food? ›
Lye water is an ingredient used in Asian and African cooking for cooking meat, rice or noodles and vegetables like corn, beans, maize or okra to soften or add flavour or keep vegetables colour. It is usually added as part of the recipe in small amounts (spoonfuls).
How to make your own lye? ›
To make lye in the kitchen, boil the ashes from a hardwood fire (soft woods are too resinous to mix with fat) in a little soft water, rainwater is best, for about half an hour. Allow the ashes to settle to the bottom of the pan and then skim the liquid lye off the top.
What is a good substitute for lye? ›
Lye “Alternatives”
Glycerin is a natural result of saponification. And the first step in creating bases for melt-and-pour soap-making – the most convenient home-based process? Saponification.
Why are bagels boiled in lye? ›
Sometimes lye (sodium hydroxide) is added to raise the pH of the crust, which promotes browning and caramelization during the bake (this is identical to how pretzels are given their signature flavor and appearance, though in the case of bagels the concentration of lye used is much lower).
What is lye used for in murders? ›
A lye solution, heated to 300 Fahrenheit degrees (148 Celsius), can dissolve an entire body into an oily brown liquid in just three hours. Dissolving of bodies in lye is a time-tested method used by Mexican drug cartels to get rid of tell-tale corpses.
What are the three types of lye? ›
There are several types of lye, the most known and most commonly used being NaOH, sodium hydroxide, and KOH, potassium hydroxide. All are metal hydroxides and are very basic (alkaline), meaning they have a very high pH.
How did they make lye in the old days? ›
Lye is made from wood ashes usually gathered from the fireplace and put in a wooden hopper. They typically needed about one wooden barrel of ashes to make the lye. The pioneers poured about 4 liters of water over the ashes to soak them. The water that seeped out was the lye water!
Before it was refined and was available in stores, it came from burning hardwood at high temperatures to get white ashes. A baking soda and water application would then remove the lye and create a solution known as potash. Filtering of the ashes would take place, leaving a solution filled with lye.
What is the synthetic name for lye? ›
Sodium hydroxide is very corrosive. It is generally used as a solid or a 50% solution. Other common names include caustic soda and lye. Sodium hydroxide is used to manufacture soaps, rayon, paper, explosives, dyestuffs, and petroleum products.
What does lye do to meat? ›
Lye also happens to be a powerful corrosive, one seemingly designed to melt your biological meat suit's mix of proteins and fats. (Pretzels are safe to eat because the lye on their surfaces reacts with carbon dioxide when heated, transforming it into harmless carbonate.)
What is food grade lye made from? ›
Lye, or caustic soda, is a mixture of sodium hydroxide and water. This strong alkaline compound is used sparingly in baking due its dominate properties. While stronger solutions of lye have been made famous for making soap and other cleaners, food-grade lye is a much milder solution.
Why is lye safe in pretzels? ›
The stronger the alkali, the more intense and impressive the results, which is why German bakers use lye; it features a chart-topping pH of 14 and produces the ultimate pretzel experience. (Rest assured, you're not ingesting a dangerous chemical: The oven's heat completely neutralizes lye and makes it safe to consume.)
Is lye harmful to humans? ›
Contact with very high concentrations of sodium hydroxide can cause severe burns to the eyes, skin, digestive system or lungs, resulting in permanent damage or death. Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause dermatitis. Repeated inhalation of sodium hydroxide vapor can lead to permanent lung damage.
Why is lye not toxic in soap? ›
Why Doesn't Lye in Soap Make It Dangerous? Lye itself isn't a safe substance to bathe in; in its original form, it's actually caustic. Even though every real soap begins with lye, there is no lye left in the finished product. During saponification, the chemical reaction between the lye and other ingredients forms soap.
