Just curious but I caught an interesting article in the NY Times about alkali ingredients (specifically baking soda and lye).  The author contends that baking baking soda creates a reasonable substitute to lye (while not as strong as lye, baking does make the baking soda stronger than unbaked baking soda).  As a professional geek, I find this very interesting.  I know that there are many here who make their own pretzels and bagels.  Thoughts?

Here is the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curious.html?_r=1&ref=dining [1]

Mr. Peabody