Cooking For Engineers

[Jack]

Hominy is made by soaking dried corn in lye, soda, potash, slaked lime, KOH or NAOH and I am trying to find reasons for choosing one over the other.

The info from the typical search is an endless stream of bad info and contradictions.

It appears that the lime process takes more soaking/cooking time than using either form of lye but the reason for KOH vs NAOH escapes me.

It all may boil down to primitive methods of making "lye" from wood ashes.

I would like to know get a engineer's/chemist's opinion and also info on health hazard differences that may exist.

Thanks,

Jack

[Dilbert]

all of those chemicals are strong bases - high pH values.

KOH = potassium hydroxide = potash
NaOH = sodium hydroxide = lye, caustic soda
CaOH2 = slaked lime

KOH and NaOH are typically stronger than CaOH2 - which is why using lime takes longer.
in the end, they all 'do the same job'

the purity of the stock will also affect the length of time needed.

all three can be extremely hazardous to handle if you don't know what you're doing.

lye is often used for pretzel making - and the internet experts go absolute bonkers over how dangerous it is.

[Guest]

[Dilbert]

people used baking soda for pretzels because it's so scary to use lye.

lye is the traditional / real way - baking soda is a substitute.