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savingdogs
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Thanks Free, I have been scouting for a litter pan of the right dimensions. You have all the BEST ideas!
Savingdogs-Saving the chickens
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hwillm1977
Almost Self-Reliant
Okay, so this may be a dumb question... I've wanted to make soap for a while and this recipe seems really easy so I think this will be what I try. I'd like to make the honey/oatmeal variation but I just wanted to make sure I get the variation right. Did you only put 8 oz of goat milk in, no water or did you make up the rest of the liquid with water, or with the honey? and when do you add the honey and oatmeal... is that after trace?savingdogs said:
I think your soaps are gorgeous!
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savingdogs
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Thanks! This is my nicest batch.hwillm1977 said:
I made the recipe first with just plain water and no additives. I would suggest you try that, just buy some scent to make it interesting. The first time I wasn't recognizing trace and adding additives complicates things right when you have to move quickly.
I added putting in oatmeal next batch, I put it in right before spooning it into the molds.
Next batch I did the same but added 1/2 cup of honey at trace as well as the oatmeal.
On my next batch, I bought a can of 8 oz homogenized goat milk (my does had not kidded yet) and replaced that much of the water, and I froze it first and added the frozen chunks last. Then added the oats and honey at trace.
This last batch I did the same, only I used 100 percent goat milk and put in 3/4 cups of oatmeal. I have teenage sons and the oatmeal soap seems to be helping their complexions, so I wanted to up the oatmeal content. So this is my fifth batch of soap.
But I weighed the liquids, and used either water or goat milk or goat milk + water to equal the oz of water (weighed, not measured).
freemotion
Food Guru
I get all my ideas from other people, usually! If you can't find a dishpan or litter box that is just right, you can adjust your recipe using one of the online calculators. Summerbee Meadow has a recipe resizing calculator.savingdogs said:
Farmfresh
City Biddy
Just BEE -U-ti -FUL! 
Britesea
Sustainability Master
I got some soap once at a craft fair that had sage in it and I loved it! I've never found any since. When I ask if someone has sage, it's usually had some sort of floral scent added to it-- I guess a lot of people don't like the straight sage smell, but I do; very astringent and refreshing. I remember they told me it was a natural deodorant as well. If you ever make some, I would buy it!
Farmfresh
City Biddy
I make a soap with sulfur and sage. That was one of the bars that I gave to Bubblingbrooks for her hubby's bug bites.
I brew the Sage in a strong tea then use that in place of the water. I love the smell of Sage as well.
I brew the Sage in a strong tea then use that in place of the water. I love the smell of Sage as well.
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savingdogs
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I have a severe allergy to sage so I won't be trying that one for myself.
Where do you get sulfur and what qualities does it lend to your soap, FF? I seem to remember using a sulfur shampoo on a dog I had long ago with a skin condition.
However, I could make special order soap like Sage soap for other people. Let me get a little practice Britisea and I may make you some soap. Was it a sage scent or did it have chopped leaves or would you prefer I use Sage water instead of goat milk? Having the recipe they used would make it alot easier to duplicate.
Where do you get sulfur and what qualities does it lend to your soap, FF? I seem to remember using a sulfur shampoo on a dog I had long ago with a skin condition.
However, I could make special order soap like Sage soap for other people. Let me get a little practice Britisea and I may make you some soap. Was it a sage scent or did it have chopped leaves or would you prefer I use Sage water instead of goat milk? Having the recipe they used would make it alot easier to duplicate.
Icu4dzs
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SD,
Your soap bars are quite attractive but I am one of those folks who only uses the plain bars. I hate ruining the art work of the "fancy ones". I went to the website with your recipe and as you say, it uses Crisco which is a fairly cheap form of lipid to which you add sodium hydroxide. Very simple and quite good. I think we'll get Woodswitch to make some and use some of her "herbal" amendments to it for their specific values. She is building quite a collection of them from what she finds just around my farm. She is really just a "frustrated botany professor" masquerading as a nurse.
I did make her some pellets of nettle leaves this week. She had this whole pot full of stinging nettle leaves that she dries out and had me put them through the pellet machine. Seems like a great way to store them. We put some nettle leaves into the pellets I make for chicken feed and that seems to be good for them.
If I were ever asked what one thing contributed most to the health of human beings, I would have to say "soap". Soap IMHO, is the one thing that has done the most to improve human health of all the things in the world. Medicines come and go, herbs are nice, but for the simple ability to rid the skin of harmful bacteria, soap is by far and away the most important item. If our forefathers only knew the relationship of soap to disease, life would have been so much better many years ago.
Keep up the good work, SD. I hope your "burns" are better. Be careful with that lye. Alkalai burns are ever so much more serious than acid burns and we wouldn't want you to get lye on you "important parts".
Trim sends
//BT//
Your soap bars are quite attractive but I am one of those folks who only uses the plain bars. I hate ruining the art work of the "fancy ones". I went to the website with your recipe and as you say, it uses Crisco which is a fairly cheap form of lipid to which you add sodium hydroxide. Very simple and quite good. I think we'll get Woodswitch to make some and use some of her "herbal" amendments to it for their specific values. She is building quite a collection of them from what she finds just around my farm. She is really just a "frustrated botany professor" masquerading as a nurse.
I did make her some pellets of nettle leaves this week. She had this whole pot full of stinging nettle leaves that she dries out and had me put them through the pellet machine. Seems like a great way to store them. We put some nettle leaves into the pellets I make for chicken feed and that seems to be good for them.
If I were ever asked what one thing contributed most to the health of human beings, I would have to say "soap". Soap IMHO, is the one thing that has done the most to improve human health of all the things in the world. Medicines come and go, herbs are nice, but for the simple ability to rid the skin of harmful bacteria, soap is by far and away the most important item. If our forefathers only knew the relationship of soap to disease, life would have been so much better many years ago.
Keep up the good work, SD. I hope your "burns" are better. Be careful with that lye. Alkalai burns are ever so much more serious than acid burns and we wouldn't want you to get lye on you "important parts".
Trim sends
//BT//
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savingdogs
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Here is a link to my soap recipe.
http://www.pureandnaturalsoaps.com/recipe-easy-crisco-soap.html I just add things to it, but the first time I made it just as the recipe calls for and it was quite nice. It is easy to find and store crisco. I don't like it as a cooking product but I'm going to CLEAN with it and not eat it. And since it IS edible it sounds like a pretty good thing to have around.
I bought my soapmaking supplies at brambleberry.com or at the Goodwill, you should dedicate the soap making stuff for only soap making, and an immersion blender really makes it easier. Soapcalc.com is an excellent reference site for anyone learning to make soap. There is also a thread at BYC entitled "Soapmakers Help!" that is extremely instructive, I read the whole thread. It should be a book on soapmaking. I also have a couple books. AAA something-or-other is a cheaper place to buy lye as per Bettacreek (I don't have that bookmarked but can find it, or ask Bettacreek).
I've actually learned there are simpler ways to shape bars and Freemotion has shown me a way to make plain shaped bars, by using a (new) kitty litter pan as the mold. There are also molds you can make that make straight smooth bars and fancy expensive cutters, but I don't have those.
The process of making soap from wood ashes, the SS way of doing things, is similar but not exactly the same. If I understand it correctly, you need to wash your ashes and save the water, and save and strain your oils. Then it was cooked with oils/fats outdoors until trace was reached, which could take quite a while until the proper chemical balance occurred. In modern day, we measure each ingredient carefully so trace is reached as soon as everything is really fully incorporated. While you could still measure carefully and use a good recipe, the lye I'm using isn't from wood ashes, it is flakes purchased online, and it is sodium hydroxide, not potassium hydroxide. Although there are recipes such as this one:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5427555_make-soap-potassium-hydroxide.html
I personally don't want to have lye-water sitting around for any period of time but if TSHTF, I'd be making soap outdoors like an old granny from a movie I guess, or were those witches? I sure HOPE no one thinks I look like a witch. But if TSHTF I'm sure my hair will revert to its witch-like-self without gel, conditioner and hair dye, with wild messy grey curls everywhere so I probably would look like a witch outside making soap.
Bwa ha ha ha ha
You should look at Freemotion's soap pictures, hers come out beautiful out of the kitty litter pans, she uses a veggie peeler to round the edges artistically, and saves the corners for her family use.
And certainly, the rugs, the dogs and CATS and food are all put away before soap making. I just should have extended that rule for CHEESE making as well.
http://www.pureandnaturalsoaps.com/recipe-easy-crisco-soap.html I just add things to it, but the first time I made it just as the recipe calls for and it was quite nice. It is easy to find and store crisco. I don't like it as a cooking product but I'm going to CLEAN with it and not eat it. And since it IS edible it sounds like a pretty good thing to have around.
I bought my soapmaking supplies at brambleberry.com or at the Goodwill, you should dedicate the soap making stuff for only soap making, and an immersion blender really makes it easier. Soapcalc.com is an excellent reference site for anyone learning to make soap. There is also a thread at BYC entitled "Soapmakers Help!" that is extremely instructive, I read the whole thread. It should be a book on soapmaking. I also have a couple books. AAA something-or-other is a cheaper place to buy lye as per Bettacreek (I don't have that bookmarked but can find it, or ask Bettacreek).
I've actually learned there are simpler ways to shape bars and Freemotion has shown me a way to make plain shaped bars, by using a (new) kitty litter pan as the mold. There are also molds you can make that make straight smooth bars and fancy expensive cutters, but I don't have those.
The process of making soap from wood ashes, the SS way of doing things, is similar but not exactly the same. If I understand it correctly, you need to wash your ashes and save the water, and save and strain your oils. Then it was cooked with oils/fats outdoors until trace was reached, which could take quite a while until the proper chemical balance occurred. In modern day, we measure each ingredient carefully so trace is reached as soon as everything is really fully incorporated. While you could still measure carefully and use a good recipe, the lye I'm using isn't from wood ashes, it is flakes purchased online, and it is sodium hydroxide, not potassium hydroxide. Although there are recipes such as this one:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5427555_make-soap-potassium-hydroxide.html
I personally don't want to have lye-water sitting around for any period of time but if TSHTF, I'd be making soap outdoors like an old granny from a movie I guess, or were those witches? I sure HOPE no one thinks I look like a witch. But if TSHTF I'm sure my hair will revert to its witch-like-self without gel, conditioner and hair dye, with wild messy grey curls everywhere so I probably would look like a witch outside making soap.
Bwa ha ha ha ha
You should look at Freemotion's soap pictures, hers come out beautiful out of the kitty litter pans, she uses a veggie peeler to round the edges artistically, and saves the corners for her family use.
And certainly, the rugs, the dogs and CATS and food are all put away before soap making. I just should have extended that rule for CHEESE making as well.
