[Sca-cooks] treating food with lye

[Elaine Koogler]

On 11/28/06, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
> What effect does soaking a grain in lye have on it? When/where was
> this done in period Europe? I thought that polenta was mostly a
> northern Italian thing. Maybe they just didn't soak things in lye
> there, even if they did elsewhere.
>
> Stefan


The lye evidently does have some effect.  I know that hominy/hominy grits
differ from regular corn in that lye is involved in the processing of the
corn.  I also know that the South Beach diet prohibits corn in most forms as
it contains a large amount of carbs in the form of sugar.  However, grits
and hominy are permitted...I can only assume that it's something that the
lye strips off of the corn.

Kiri