April 24, 2015 - 8:15pm
Cooking With Wood Ash Lye
To keep on topic I won't go into detail about why I want to try this but I am very curious how safe it is to make one's own lye solution using the old wood ash method then using the lye to cook with?
I've gotten mixed responses from people I know about it. Some say it can result in a gruesome death, others have said that it's fine. Who to believe?
Do any of you know the truth? I really want to try but would like to avoid a gruesome death if possible.
What is the main difference between food grade lye and wood ash lye? Is one more harmful than the other?
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I don't know how one would go about making lye from wood ash (in my former life as a biochemist we just used it straight from the reagent bottle). If you need lye for some baking purpose you are better off just buying it and reducing the chance for injury. Be forewarned that concentrated lye is terribly caustic and certainly wear some type of safety glasses to protect your eyes.
Lye was made by dripping water through wood ashes. The result is usually a fairly weak solution of potassium hydroxide, KOH. The water is then removed by evaporation and the precipitate is saved for cooking, tanning, soap making &c. There is a simple (homestead) method of replacing the potassium atom with a sodium atom to make NaOH, but damned if I remember it.
If using lye is frightening, though it shouldn't be using reasonable safety practices, try limewater, a saturated solution of slaked lime, Ca(OH)₂. Its pH is 12.3 compared to lye's 14.
cheers,
gary
Wood Ash Bagel Discussion.
Wild-Yeast
P.S. Potassium Hydroxide makes soft soap, Sodium Hydroxide makes hard soap. To harden soap made with potassium hydroxide from hardwood ash an amount of Sodium Chloride (table salt) is added to harden the cake.