Since lye is corrosive, it hates certain metals. Take aluminum, for instance. Lye wants to kick aluminum in the face. And aluminum has no defenses; it's one of the most reactive metals on earth. You can get aluminum to react with air if you just look at it the wrong way.
Keep in mind that most sheet pans are made out of aluminum, so spilling any amount of lye on them will cause the metal to have a molecular anxiety attack. Atoms of aluminum freak out and combine with the sodium hydroxide to form weird aluminum salts, with the byproduct being pure hydrogen gas.
It's inevitable that some lye will jack up your pans. But as a precaution, always bake pretzels on something like parchment paper or a Silpat to control this reaction and subsequent buildup of hydrogen gas in your oven. (!!!)
What to do with leftover lye? Easy. Dump it down the drain followed by a hot water flush. Is this safe? Yup: in addition to making world class pretzels, sodium hydroxide is one of the chemicals most commonly used as a drain cleaner. (According to the MSDS for Pro Strength Liquid Plumr, the concentration level is only HALF what I use for pretzels. eek!) Anyway, sodium hydroxide eats away at gunk and also uses the saponification trick to turn trapped grease into soap, essentially causing the drain gunk to clean itself.
If you really want to make pretzels but the lye thing freaks you out, you can simply use a weaker alkali found in the kitchen: baking soda. Mix it up with water for the dip, but you will have to bring the mix to around 190 degrees (F) or so. Essentially, the pretzels will be poached, just like making bagels! Everyone is happy!
I should also say, bibliography style, that Joe Pastry has taught me a lot about lye pretzels. While I hope to have added some to the discussion without directly plagiarising his work, I make no guarantees. Check out his posts here.
That is all!
No comments:
Post a Comment