Bavarian soft pretzels (safely) bathed in caustic soda
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Date: 2023-03-03
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Comments and reviews: 15
Mark
I am a retired chemist. I really need to emphasize a vital safety item you ignored. Your eyes are MUCH more susceptible to damage from lye than your skin and considerably less likely to recover without permanent damage. Gloves are certainly indicated here, but splash proof goggles or perhaps a full face shield are equally, if not even more indicated. Both are easily available at big box hardware stores.
There is another important safety item. Your advice to sprinkle in the NaOH a little at a time while stirring is very important. Do not dump it in all at once. A heap of NaOH in the middle of a pan of water will cause a hot spot of high concentration. Dissolving NaOH gets very hot! It will boil, splattering caustic solution where you do not want it. It may also get hot enough to shatter kitchen grade glassware, even bakeware, which is not as heat or chemical resistant as lab grade glassware, despite often having a very similar brand name. Sprinkle and dissolve slowly. The little old Bavarian ladies were probably using crockery rather than glassware. It s more heat resistant.
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I am a retired chemist. I really need to emphasize a vital safety item you ignored. Your eyes are MUCH more susceptible to damage from lye than your skin and considerably less likely to recover without permanent damage. Gloves are certainly indicated here, but splash proof goggles or perhaps a full face shield are equally, if not even more indicated. Both are easily available at big box hardware stores.
There is another important safety item. Your advice to sprinkle in the NaOH a little at a time while stirring is very important. Do not dump it in all at once. A heap of NaOH in the middle of a pan of water will cause a hot spot of high concentration. Dissolving NaOH gets very hot! It will boil, splattering caustic solution where you do not want it. It may also get hot enough to shatter kitchen grade glassware, even bakeware, which is not as heat or chemical resistant as lab grade glassware, despite often having a very similar brand name. Sprinkle and dissolve slowly. The little old Bavarian ladies were probably using crockery rather than glassware. It s more heat resistant.
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yvesivo
The swabian town I grew up in claims to be the place where the Brezel was invented.
According to the legend, the Bretzel was invented in 1477 by a court baker named Frieder from Urach, who had fallen from grace by committing an outrage against his sovereign, Count Eberhard. However, since the baker had previously done good service, he was to be given another chance. Bake a cake dear friend, through which the sun shines three times, then you will not be hanged, your life be freely given to you. He gave him three days to do this before he was to receive the death penalty. The baker was at a loss and his wife folded her arms in grief. With that, she gave her husband the idea for the Bretzel shape. He was further helped by a cat that had accidentally knocked the baking tray into the lye pan. However, since the new pastry with three holes did not yet have a name, the Count's wife - a princess from Italy - was asked for her opinion. She remembered the Latin word for little arm: bracchia, which later became Brezel. So the baker Frieder could save his life.
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The swabian town I grew up in claims to be the place where the Brezel was invented.
According to the legend, the Bretzel was invented in 1477 by a court baker named Frieder from Urach, who had fallen from grace by committing an outrage against his sovereign, Count Eberhard. However, since the baker had previously done good service, he was to be given another chance. Bake a cake dear friend, through which the sun shines three times, then you will not be hanged, your life be freely given to you. He gave him three days to do this before he was to receive the death penalty. The baker was at a loss and his wife folded her arms in grief. With that, she gave her husband the idea for the Bretzel shape. He was further helped by a cat that had accidentally knocked the baking tray into the lye pan. However, since the new pastry with three holes did not yet have a name, the Count's wife - a princess from Italy - was asked for her opinion. She remembered the Latin word for little arm: bracchia, which later became Brezel. So the baker Frieder could save his life.
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TheFireMage100
Chemistry student here. Just want to make everyone aware that if you pour this down the sink make sure that theres no cleaning products lingering around. Lye with ammonia, bleach, drain cleaner (some drain cleaners contain bleach) or anything youre not 100% sure about is almost always a bad combination. The method Adam shows here is really safe, Id just recommend running the water for a little while (literally like 10 or so seconds) to make sure any cleaning products left in the sink are also diluted.
Also, aluminium. Dont go pouring chemicals over your dishes obviously but especially if anything in there is aluminium. It could end up being damaged and, worst case, hydrogen gas could build up in your kitchen. The latter is super unlikely and not really something to worry about too much but I dont want yall ruining any aluminium pans
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Chemistry student here. Just want to make everyone aware that if you pour this down the sink make sure that theres no cleaning products lingering around. Lye with ammonia, bleach, drain cleaner (some drain cleaners contain bleach) or anything youre not 100% sure about is almost always a bad combination. The method Adam shows here is really safe, Id just recommend running the water for a little while (literally like 10 or so seconds) to make sure any cleaning products left in the sink are also diluted.
Also, aluminium. Dont go pouring chemicals over your dishes obviously but especially if anything in there is aluminium. It could end up being damaged and, worst case, hydrogen gas could build up in your kitchen. The latter is super unlikely and not really something to worry about too much but I dont want yall ruining any aluminium pans
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Kevin
Hey Adam.
I believe you should be a little more specific in proper safety procedures here.
1) You should probably warn people to wear glasses here (it could accidently 'fly' up if people aren't careful.
2) Warning people not to taste in ingest any lye and to avoid contact with mucosal linings.
3) Maintaining a clean and organized workspace (this is a LARGE one that many people may skip over.
4) Proper storage and labeling (eg away from children. I know Dave Arnold made the mistake of keeping some lye around and he made the mistake of 'tasting it' which destroyed his taste buds for quite a while.
I am glad you're showing the real hardcore version, but I think given the risks, I think putting some more caution up front is warranted.
Kevin
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Hey Adam.
I believe you should be a little more specific in proper safety procedures here.
1) You should probably warn people to wear glasses here (it could accidently 'fly' up if people aren't careful.
2) Warning people not to taste in ingest any lye and to avoid contact with mucosal linings.
3) Maintaining a clean and organized workspace (this is a LARGE one that many people may skip over.
4) Proper storage and labeling (eg away from children. I know Dave Arnold made the mistake of keeping some lye around and he made the mistake of 'tasting it' which destroyed his taste buds for quite a while.
I am glad you're showing the real hardcore version, but I think given the risks, I think putting some more caution up front is warranted.
Kevin
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Andromedarr
Soap maker here. Be careful with Pyrex in combination with lye. Lye etches the glass slowly and over the years it migh weaken it far enough that that dish full of caustic solution breaks and pours all of its contents on you and your kitchen floor. In soap making we use stainless steel for our lye solution (NEVER ALUMINIUM) because that is both heat & lye safe. 70 grams of lye in 1, 2 Liters of water is a far, far weaker solution than what we use in soap making (up to a 1: 1 ratio) so I can not say wether a weak solution like this also etches glass, but I would not risk it.
Thank you for covering Brezen (the bavarian name for them, I am from Bavaria and they are pretty much my favorite of all the baked goods.
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Soap maker here. Be careful with Pyrex in combination with lye. Lye etches the glass slowly and over the years it migh weaken it far enough that that dish full of caustic solution breaks and pours all of its contents on you and your kitchen floor. In soap making we use stainless steel for our lye solution (NEVER ALUMINIUM) because that is both heat & lye safe. 70 grams of lye in 1, 2 Liters of water is a far, far weaker solution than what we use in soap making (up to a 1: 1 ratio) so I can not say wether a weak solution like this also etches glass, but I would not risk it.
Thank you for covering Brezen (the bavarian name for them, I am from Bavaria and they are pretty much my favorite of all the baked goods.
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bajr
Great vid! Just a safety note for those trying at home. The order of operations with creating the lye bath is extremely important. The sodium hydroxide should be poured into the water (as Adam did in the video, and not the other way around. The large mass of water acts like a heat sink to allow the sodium hydroxide to dissolve safely. DO NOT pour water onto sodium hydroxide by putting the sodium hydroxide into the pyrex and pouring water over it! The first few drops of water that hit the lye will dissolve the sodium hydroxide so quickly that the exothermic reaction may cause those droplets to flash to steam in a small explosion, potentially spraying you with concentrated lye solution.
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Great vid! Just a safety note for those trying at home. The order of operations with creating the lye bath is extremely important. The sodium hydroxide should be poured into the water (as Adam did in the video, and not the other way around. The large mass of water acts like a heat sink to allow the sodium hydroxide to dissolve safely. DO NOT pour water onto sodium hydroxide by putting the sodium hydroxide into the pyrex and pouring water over it! The first few drops of water that hit the lye will dissolve the sodium hydroxide so quickly that the exothermic reaction may cause those droplets to flash to steam in a small explosion, potentially spraying you with concentrated lye solution.
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lazercheesecake
One thing to note is you always want to add the lye to water, not the other way around. It's not like cereal where the order doesn't matter. Adam talks about the reactions being exothermic, and that's when you are working with low concentrations (lye to water. When you have the lye first, then add the water, you are working the other way with high concentration, so highly exothermic. Done incorrectly, it can bubble and splash high concentration basic solution into your kitchen or your skin.
All chemists will tell you the same thing. Add acid (or base) to water. Something like vinegar or baking soda doesn't matter, but something like lye is very reactive and caustic
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One thing to note is you always want to add the lye to water, not the other way around. It's not like cereal where the order doesn't matter. Adam talks about the reactions being exothermic, and that's when you are working with low concentrations (lye to water. When you have the lye first, then add the water, you are working the other way with high concentration, so highly exothermic. Done incorrectly, it can bubble and splash high concentration basic solution into your kitchen or your skin.
All chemists will tell you the same thing. Add acid (or base) to water. Something like vinegar or baking soda doesn't matter, but something like lye is very reactive and caustic
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Darthplagueis13
I remember hearing a story on the origin of the lye crust when I was a kid, though I have no idea if it's historically accurate. Essentially, as the story goes, they had an apprentice baker in the kitchen making Pretzels which were meant to be splashed in sugar water before baking as a sweet treat. However, the apprentice was distracted or in a hurry and confused the sugar water with a bit of lye solution that had been intended for cleaning. When the Pretzels came out of the oven they had turned a dark red-ish brown instead of the very light blonde tone they would have had with the sugar and it turned out that the resulting crust really was pretty tasty.
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I remember hearing a story on the origin of the lye crust when I was a kid, though I have no idea if it's historically accurate. Essentially, as the story goes, they had an apprentice baker in the kitchen making Pretzels which were meant to be splashed in sugar water before baking as a sweet treat. However, the apprentice was distracted or in a hurry and confused the sugar water with a bit of lye solution that had been intended for cleaning. When the Pretzels came out of the oven they had turned a dark red-ish brown instead of the very light blonde tone they would have had with the sugar and it turned out that the resulting crust really was pretty tasty.
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Arian
For anyone wanting to try this, please use glasses, any kind will do but preferably safety glasses. If you get strong lye in your eyes you only have about a minute to wash it out before it can cause permanent damage and leave your partially or completely blind. Also, if you do get it in your eyes make sure to wash your eyes under running water for at least 5 minutes. I work with the stuff daily and can t tell you how many nonchalant factory workers have damaged their eyesight due to lye
Adam is right, a weak lye solution won t harm your skin very much, but the concentration needed to harm your eyes is much much lower.
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For anyone wanting to try this, please use glasses, any kind will do but preferably safety glasses. If you get strong lye in your eyes you only have about a minute to wash it out before it can cause permanent damage and leave your partially or completely blind. Also, if you do get it in your eyes make sure to wash your eyes under running water for at least 5 minutes. I work with the stuff daily and can t tell you how many nonchalant factory workers have damaged their eyesight due to lye
Adam is right, a weak lye solution won t harm your skin very much, but the concentration needed to harm your eyes is much much lower.
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neil
Funny thing I got burnt by NaOH already in a chemistry lab. We were doing Titration and how the lab tables are set up, there were 4 persons per table, 2 on one side and 2 on the opposite side. So the girl on the opposite side of me didn't clamp her Burnette properly and it slipped an broke and leaked on to the table. I was finishing up so I was packing up my equipment in the space under the table and you kind of had to stoop. All I felt was a liquid on my head and it started burning. Luckily the lab assistant rushed me into the safety shower. I had to shave my hair after for safety but at least I got 2 weeks off.
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Funny thing I got burnt by NaOH already in a chemistry lab. We were doing Titration and how the lab tables are set up, there were 4 persons per table, 2 on one side and 2 on the opposite side. So the girl on the opposite side of me didn't clamp her Burnette properly and it slipped an broke and leaked on to the table. I was finishing up so I was packing up my equipment in the space under the table and you kind of had to stoop. All I felt was a liquid on my head and it started burning. Luckily the lab assistant rushed me into the safety shower. I had to shave my hair after for safety but at least I got 2 weeks off.
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ufuckingwotm8
Theres a good bit of germans in the comments that try to amend this recipe, but I have to say: these look just like the ones always sold at traditional markets in Germany! I really love these, and I think you did a great job! No real point in trying to correct a recipe that has a million different ways to make it traditionally imo.
Also, if you simply dipped the unrolled dough into the acid without folding them (and still scoring them of course) you would get 'Laugenstangen'! Might be a more practical version of this dish to make those instead if you don't feel like trying to knot dough.
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Theres a good bit of germans in the comments that try to amend this recipe, but I have to say: these look just like the ones always sold at traditional markets in Germany! I really love these, and I think you did a great job! No real point in trying to correct a recipe that has a million different ways to make it traditionally imo.
Also, if you simply dipped the unrolled dough into the acid without folding them (and still scoring them of course) you would get 'Laugenstangen'! Might be a more practical version of this dish to make those instead if you don't feel like trying to knot dough.
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MonsieurCoinCoin
In Alsace (French region on the German border) they use the same dough to make miniature baguettes called Mauricette or Malicette. AFAIK it used to be made when there was not enough dough to make another pretzel and it got popular around the 70s - 80s so people made them intentionally from then on. It is about as long as your hand and as thick as your pretzel's thick part, delicious alone but also works very well as a sandwich bread. Where I did my studies there was a bakery making three to four different kinds of cheap sandwiches with these Mauricettes and i LOVED it.
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In Alsace (French region on the German border) they use the same dough to make miniature baguettes called Mauricette or Malicette. AFAIK it used to be made when there was not enough dough to make another pretzel and it got popular around the 70s - 80s so people made them intentionally from then on. It is about as long as your hand and as thick as your pretzel's thick part, delicious alone but also works very well as a sandwich bread. Where I did my studies there was a bakery making three to four different kinds of cheap sandwiches with these Mauricettes and i LOVED it.
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Ivo
The dangerous thing about sodium hydroxide isnt that it can give you a chamical burn, it also dissolves your tissue without a lot of burning sensation that it may not even be recognizable when you dont know you have some on yourself. Also it burns way deeper than acids, cause it dissolves fats way better. The concentrations used in the recipe isnt that strong but it may cause some nasty burns if let on skin for long enough.
I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying this recipe just mentioning the properties of lye that may be useful from you safety-wise.
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The dangerous thing about sodium hydroxide isnt that it can give you a chamical burn, it also dissolves your tissue without a lot of burning sensation that it may not even be recognizable when you dont know you have some on yourself. Also it burns way deeper than acids, cause it dissolves fats way better. The concentrations used in the recipe isnt that strong but it may cause some nasty burns if let on skin for long enough.
I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying this recipe just mentioning the properties of lye that may be useful from you safety-wise.
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Dell
Ok ready for some science from a nerd hehe
Gluten = Protein = Polypeptide
Polypeptides (or polyamides for the chemistry nerds) undergo base hydrolysis when exposed to sodium hydroxide (NaOH, which breaks the peptide bond and converts the gluten protein into free amino acids (sludge on the outside of the dough)
These amino acids are therefore more readily available on the surface of the dough to react with sugars when exposed to heat (Maillard reaction) to produce a brown and crispy crust.
Yay science
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Ok ready for some science from a nerd hehe
Gluten = Protein = Polypeptide
Polypeptides (or polyamides for the chemistry nerds) undergo base hydrolysis when exposed to sodium hydroxide (NaOH, which breaks the peptide bond and converts the gluten protein into free amino acids (sludge on the outside of the dough)
These amino acids are therefore more readily available on the surface of the dough to react with sugars when exposed to heat (Maillard reaction) to produce a brown and crispy crust.
Yay science
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viljamtheninja
Here in Sweden we have a traditional lye fish dish around Christmas time.
Edit: though this is less for flavor and more for practical reasons. It dates back to the 15th century, when we'd dry fish for preservation. When it was time to eat, the hard, dried fish needed to be made soft again, so it was put in a mix of water and ashes of birch trees. And now we keep doing it because tradition, I guess, even though there's no need to actually dry the fish to preserve it nowadays.
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Here in Sweden we have a traditional lye fish dish around Christmas time.
Edit: though this is less for flavor and more for practical reasons. It dates back to the 15th century, when we'd dry fish for preservation. When it was time to eat, the hard, dried fish needed to be made soft again, so it was put in a mix of water and ashes of birch trees. And now we keep doing it because tradition, I guess, even though there's no need to actually dry the fish to preserve it nowadays.
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