Sodium hydroxide is used in many industries, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents and as a drain cleaner. Food Preperation: Food uses of sodium hydroxide include washing or chemical peeling of fruits and vegetables, chocolate and cocoa processing, caramel coloring production, poultry scalding, soft drink processing, and thickening ice cream. Olives are often soaked in sodium hydroxide for softening; Pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a sodium hydroxide solution before baking to make them crisp. Owing to the difficulty in obtaining food grade sodium hydroxide in small quantities for home use, sodium carbonate is often used in place of sodium hydroxide. Specific foods processed with sodium hydroxide include: •The Pinoy or Filipino dessert (kakanin) called kutsinta uses a bit of lye water to help give the rice flour batter a jelly like consistency. •A similar process is also used in the kakanin known as pitsi-pitsi or pichi-pichi (pit-chi-pit-chi) except that the mixture uses grated cassava instead of rice flour. •The Scandinavian delicacy known as lutefisk (from lutfisk, "lye fish"). •Hominy is dried maize (corn) kernels reconstituted by soaking in lye-water. These expand considerably in size and may be further processed by frying to make corn nuts or by drying and grinding to make grits. Nixtamal is similar, but uses calcium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide. •Sodium hydroxide is also the chemical that causes gelling of egg whites in the production of Century eggs. •German pretzels are poached in a boiling sodium carbonate solution or cold sodium hydroxide solution before baking, which contributes to their unique crust. •Lye-water is an essential ingredient in the crust of the traditional baked Chinese moon cakes. •Most yellow coloured Chinese noodles are made with lye-water but are commonly mistaken for containing egg.
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