Lye

=**LYE**= Lye is a very dangerous and corrosive alkaline that when in its most common form is known as //Sodium Hydroxide// or //Caustic Soda//. Lye is commonly used in the production of soap. Solid dry lye is commonly available as flakes, pellets, microbeads, and coarse powder. It is also available as a solution, that is often dissolved in water. It easily absorbs CO 2, and therefore should be stored in an airtight container at all times. Lye is highly exothermic, and can cause extreme burns. A great example of this would be from the 1999 film, "Fight Club" where Tyler Durden kisses his hand and pours a pure form of Lye over the kiss, resulting in an exothermic reaction and a painful burn. Lye can be extremely dangerous, and this is why...[]

The demand for lye was recently 50 million tons, while the amount produced exceeded that figure by 9 million tons.



Lye is something that has been around for a long long time. It used to be made by taking the burning wood out of a fire, or cutting the excess lard off of animals. It was also a grueling process using the lye to produce soap. If there was too much lye the soap would burn the skin on contact; if there was too little lye the soap was useless. Essentially, it was hit and miss when using lye. Today, discoveries have been made making the process of creating lye soap easier. It is mostly due to the concept that people still prefer to use lye soaps. They prefer to do so because of its all natural ingredients. Lastly, lye soap, in addition to being used for hands and feet, was designed to wash things like dishes, clothes, and such. This makes it relatively rough on skin.
 * //A Brief History of Lye//**

However there are some safety precautions that can be taken when dealing with Lye. This includes safety glasses and chemical resistant gloves. It's also important to have strong ventilation when working with Lye during the soap formation process.

Lye is used to [|cure] many types of food, such as [|lutefisk], green [|olives] , canned [|mandarin oranges] , [|hominy] , [|lye rolls] , [|century eggs] , and [|pretzels]. It is also used as a tenderizer in the crust of baked Cantonese moon cakes, and in lye-water "zongzi" (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in palm leaves), in chewy southern Chinese noodles popular in Hong Kong and southern China, and in Japanese ramen. In the [|United States], food-grade lye must meet the requirements outlined in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), as prescribed by the [|U.S. Food and Drug Administration] (FDA). [|[3]] Lower grades of lye are commonly used as drain openers and oven cleaners and should not be used for food preparation.