Got some very thick baked on oil inside of a Lodge dutch oven with an enamel lining. Avocado oil, baked on in a 500F oven while making bread. Can I save some time by just filling it up with warm water (~175F) and soaking for a while with a lye solution before I scrub off the oil? Will this damage the surface? The surface is not pristine, it's an old DO and saw a lot of use before I got it.
A lot of advice says use baking soda, which is pH 8.5. Lye is 13 but I know it will get rid of those polymerized fats.
I'm aware of all the danger of lye, I've used it to strip cast iron pans with no issue.
edit to clarify: thinking 1 tsp of lye powder to 3 qts of water. The real question is will any concentration of lye destroy enamel?