Soap Making 101

[freemotion]

Please explain exactly what the egg in suspension looks like.....a fresh egg floating? How high? Seriously, enquiring minds want to know! I've thought about making my own lye, but it is way on the bottom of the list. However, if I ever NEEDED to, I'd like to know how!

I enjoy my soapmaking more since I super simplified it. I wonder sometimes if some of the recipes were written by ones who sell specialty oils and butters....my only soapmaking book was written by a vegetarian or vegan....can't remember....who feels it is wrong to use animal fats. Yet in a very primitive situation, that is what would be available for the average person raising animals....

You can use goat's milk in your recipes to replace the water, but keep in mind that it will superfat the recipe a bit, which is it's value. You need to freeze the milk in ice cube trays and slightly thaw it into thick slush, then add the lye a tiny bit at a time, stir, wait, add more, stir, wait, repeat. Otherwise the heat of the reaction will burn the milk fats and make your soap orange. You want to use the heat of the reaction to simply melt the frozen milk and bring it to the proper temperature for stirring into the fats.

You also don't cover it or insulate it. As I learned the hard way, don't even set it on a wooden table to cool, as the wood insulates it. Keep it cooler (out of drafts, though) than you normally would.

 

[Farmfresh]

As you know my head is BRIM full of useless (?) info.

Like yourself I someday MIGHT just need the info.

As I understand the process you set up a seep (for lack of a better thing to call it). They used to make them from a hollowed stump or log that has a small hole drilled into one side to allow water to slowly seep out into a non reactive collection vessel.

Once you have your setup you place wood ash into the log and slowly pour in water and collect it in the vessel. It sounds like you want something about three and a half times deeper than the egg is thick. Then you put in the egg. The egg is supposed to stay floating in the middle - top to bottom - of the vessel. I can't remember if floating or sinking to the bottom means too strong? Anyway too weak and you run the liquid through the seep again. Too strong and add some fresh water.

Then all you need is some nice rendered fat.

 

[dntd]

I can do it by sniff! Thanks for the idea. Now to find vanilla beans that aren't in the supermarket in those tiny jars that are expensive...

You can use vanilla bean powder in replace of the beans. I bought mine from a health food store for $20, It has lasted well over a year for lots of things , baking, canning,soapmaking,smoothies. The older it get the better it gets. Nothing like the real flavor or scent

 

[freemotion]

I read about lye in Carla Emery's book last night. You put an egg or potato in the lye and it should float enough so that a bit about the size of a quarter is above the liquid.

You can use a real cork to stop up the hole to keep the water in the ashes for 2-3 days as the ashes settle, add more, etc. Then take the cork out for nice strong lye! Oh, and you put straw or hay or grass on the bottom, not sure why, maybe to strain it and not have lye/ash/mud/pudding slide out of the hole.

 

[Farmfresh]

Cool beans! Thanks for the refresher course!!

 

[valmom]

A question that I don't think needs a whole new thread- what do you guys do with soaping in the hot, humid summer? Just stop? My soaps aren't curing well- they sweat. So I put them down in the de-humidified basement and the mice are eating the soap! I have 2 nice batches that have all the bars nibbled on! I can't keep them upstairs because they just seem to melt in the humidity- I'm even leery about storing the older bars upstairs.

What can I do? I have stopped making soap for the last month because I can't figure out where to put it.

 

[freemotion]

I don't make soap in the summer....but only because it is such a busy time doing other things....gardens, fencing, cheesemaking, etc. In the winter is when I have time for soapmaking. Traditionally, it was done late fall/early winter along with butchering.

 

[me&thegals]

Yeah, my soap was sweating, too, especially the salt bars, which literally got to the point of standing in water in their solid-bottomed tray. I haven't made much, but storing it is a beast. Mine are in the basement near the dehumidifier. Since dehumidifying, it has gotten better. Good luck! Trap for mice

 

[Farmfresh]

Fall winter soaper here as well.

 

[valmom]

I have been considering buying a mouse cage to put my soap in. If it keeps pet mice in, it should keep wild mice out, right?

I couldn't resist- the weather is temporarily feeling fall-ish and I made a batch today. Coconut and shea butter (and my usual Crisco and olive oil) and coconut oil scent. I am going to get a mouse cage before I unmold them