Lye is used to cure many types of food, such as lutefisk, black olives, canned mandarin oranges, hominy, lye rolls, century eggs, and pretzels.
From the en.wikipedia.org
Ashes are caustic, hence their traditional use in making lye soap or in turning corn kernels into hominy.
From the washingtonpost.com
In the South, traditional grits are made from hominy, which is corn treated with lye and dried before it is ground.
From the sacbee.com
Grits were traditionally made from hominy, which is dried corn that was boiled with an alkali, such as lye, to remove the outer kernel.
From the charlotteobserver.com
Hominy is the name given to whole corn kernels, usually white, that have been cooked in a lye or lime solution to remove their thick hulls.
From the dailyherald.com
For the uninitiated, grits are porridge made from hominy, which is ground, hulled corn that has had the bran and germ removed by sifting or soaking in lye.