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My plumber always tells me never to use drain cleaners, so I wouldn’t say nobody worries about it...
by cortesoft 6y ago
My plumber always tells me never to use drain cleaners, so I wouldn’t say nobody worries about it...
- gallexme 6y agoBut u happily eat it on pretzels? There's no issue in low concentrations
- martey 6y agoSodium hydroxide (NaOH) is lye, which shouldn't be consumed. Pretzel salt is sodium chloride (NaCL).
- kortex 6y agoNope, pretzels are made with lye (NaOH). That's how you get the tasty brown Maillard reaction coating - boil the dough in lye water, then bake, then salt it.
- skykooler 6y agoThough it doesn't have to be lye - you can use other less caustic bases, such as baking soda.
- theptip 6y agoSome traditional pretzel/bagel recipes use lye: https://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Soft-Pretzels-using-lye/45579 https://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Soft-Pretzels-using...
- mbernstein 6y agoLye is used in the creation of pretzels and bagels.
- CRConrad 6y agoIn German, I think their full name is Laugenbrezel. The full name may not be much used[1] colloquially, because it's implied -- but bread rolls made the same way are definitely called Laugenbrötchen. "Lauge" is German for "lye". They're called that because they're made with it. [1]: Though when I switched my phone keyboard to German just now to test it out, the predictive spelling corrector suggested "Laugenbrezel", not "-brötchen", when I'd got as far as "Laugenb".
- spijdar 6y agoPeople most certainly don't eat sodium hydroxide on their pretzels anymore than they eat raw egg in their cakes. Coating pretzels with lye before baking causes a chemical reaction that consumes the lye. You really, really shouldn't ingest any amount of lye, lest it react with the inside of your squishy organic matter like the surface of pretzel dough...
- Spivak 6y agoYou should avoid drain cleaners because in high concentrations they corrode metal. The compound is fine in your dishwasher because it will fully react and neutralize in your plastic or coated metal dishwasher casing.
- throwawayboise 6y agoYour plumber tells you to never use something that might result in you not needing his services? Imagine that!
- spijdar 6y agoDevil's advocate: the back of those drain cleaner solutions make a point that the solution should never sit or pool in any surface or pipe. You have to run water and chase it down so it doesn't corrode the pipes. I know where I live some of the pipes have "flow issues" because of bad design, and if there was already a partial blockage I can see drain cleaner corroding the pipes... We just mechanically clean them out ourselves, anyway.
- throwawayboise 6y agoMaybe if you have metal drain pipes. They sell the stuff in plastic bottles. If you have PVC drain pipes, it isn't going to disolve them.
- pfranz 6y agoIf you ask them why they say its because it'll often dissolve the pipes before the blockage. Most of the trades people I talk to aren't looking to maximize their work. I've had them turn down jobs for being too gross and I don't blame them. They'll generally use a snake/auger. Home Depot sells a basic one for $15. The beefier, further reaching ones cost more. Or, for smaller jobs, there are single-use plastic snakes.