more kitchen stupidity (cooking with crystal drain cleaner)

[cofi]

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10877/lye-bagels

well my pizzas have been coming out better and better(mama bear has stated that we no longer need to buy pizzas again ever!) so i want to try my hand at the other east coast staple real NY bagles......i know it can be done

it looks like a big part of the process is making the water very very high alkiline to hydrolize proteins in the flour and makes them brown through the malliard reaction you use lye to do this







every part of my brain say that boiling my bagles in drain cleaner will kill off me and the rest of the family but a bunch of the folks on the internets say this is the ONLY way to get real NY bagles what do you guys think???? sodium hydroxide is lye.......and the chinese(and a lot of other cultures) cook a lot of there noodles and desserts with lye

what do u guys think???

[TheGrey]

FOOD Grade Lye is what you should use to cook with, not drain cleaner.
Lutefisk uses lye. As do pretzels. Alton Brown suggests baking soda for pretzels, maybe he also suggests something for bagels? I don't know.
Crystal Drain Cleaner isn't what will make your bagels taste good.

[Badger]

You're discussing a state, (NY) that disapproves of firearms of any kind at all, concerned that the state in question recommends sodium hydroxide, and then you ask....

what do u guys think???

To me it falls to a simple, "If you have to ask" kind of thing. Best of luck I guess.


Badger

[10mm-man]

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10877/lye-bagels

well my pizzas have been coming out better and better(mama bear has stated that we no longer need to buy pizzas again ever!) so i want to try my hand at the other east coast staple real NY bagles......i know it can be done

it looks like a big part of the process is making the water very very high alkiline to hydrolize proteins in the flour and makes them brown through the malliard reaction you use lye to do this







every part of my brain say that boiling my bagles in drain cleaner will kill off me and the rest of the family but a bunch of the folks on the internets say this is the ONLY way to get real NY bagles what do you guys think???? sodium hydroxide is lye.......and the chinese(and a lot of other cultures) cook a lot of there noodles and desserts with lye

what do u guys think???

Thinking; let me know how they come out! And if you guys are around after eating them for say, 6 months; I might try em! lol

[Great-Kazoo]

FOOD GRADE, DUDE, FOOD GRADE. Fukin jersyites.

The most important thing for any yeast / rising dough is conversion to high altitude . Water boils at a lower temp so you need to adjust cook times, FOOD GRADE LYE ratio, etc.

[cofi]

ok ok looking into food grade lye now

jim next time we hang out were gonna have a long talk about baking up here you seem to really know your shit

[BuffCyclist]

For what its worth, I just made these pretzels and dipped them in a boiled pot of water with baking soda (instead of the traditional lye) and they came out amazing!!! Granted, every time I have one, I want to drink a beer... nothing wrong with that, right?!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Papa-Dr...ls/Detail.aspx

I cut the dough into 8 pieces and the pretzels were about 1.5" in diameter and about 10" long. HUGE pretzels!

[cofi]

i have done the baking soda dips on my pretzels in the past butr the peeps who have used lye said there is no comparison

[cofi]

fwiw im going to run this recipe with baking soda untill this comes in

http://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Hydroxi.../dp/B0039CPO34

[Dingo]

The title of your thread lead my imagination in altogether different and more amphetaminey directions. :-)