Yesterday was soap making day on the Croft. Tom had been wanting to know the in's and out's of making soap and my neighbor down the road was interested in learning how it was done, too. Since Ariel is doing independent study now, she got into the act and invited her friend, Gretchen, who brought along her little sister, Abby. Yippee! Now it's a party!
The Stuff of Soap: assorted fats and lye. Yes, you must use lye. There is no soap without lye.
Use your super hero goggles and gloves. Really....put them on.
Here's the equipment you'll need:
1. A large, non-reactive pot (stainless is good) for heating the fats
2. A smaller pot for mixing the lye and water
3. An accurate kitchen scale for weighing the ingredients.
4. An accurate candy or similar thermometer. I like the digital ones.
5. A stick blender--the white thing you see in the photo above.
6. A stainless steel mixing spoon.
Here's the Recipe for Oatmeal Soap
32 oz (4 c.) water
12 oz lye crystals
Put cold water in the smaller pot. Put on your goggles and gloves. Take the pot of water, the spoon and the container of lye crystals and go outside with them. You will mix the lye crystals into the water outside where the fumes will not hurt you. Make sure no small children or animals can get at it. You will be leaving the lye solution outside for a while. When you put the crystals in the water the solution gets very hot---it's a chemical reaction between the lye and the water. Which brings me to this: soap making is NOT the same as cooking. You can fudge the recipe with food, but please do not do this with soap making. Soap making is SCIENCE and CHEMISTRY! It's also fun to do.
Here is Gretchen accurately measuring the rest of the ingredients into the large pot which has been place on the scale:
8 oz coconut oil
4 lbs lard
17 oz olive oil
To be accurate, all measurements are made by weight, not by volume.
Exactly eight ounces of coconut oil.
Once all the fats are in the pot, warm them on the stove.
You'll need to use the thermometer now...once the fats are at 95-100 degrees AND the lye solution is at 90-95 degrees, they will be combined. It doesn't take long for the fats to get to the right temperature, but sometimes the lye solution needs help cooling down.
Bring the pot with the lye solution inside and VERY carefully place it in a bowl of ice. You're wearing your goggles and gloves, right?
When the temperatures in both pots are just right, carefully pour the lye solution into the pot with the melted fats. Use the stick blender to mix and stir---sometimes with the blender on, and sometimes just using the blender as a spoon to stir. The mixture will eventually take on the consistency of pudding. When a little blob of the soap can sit on top of the mixture before gently sinking back in and if you use your stick blender to trace a figure eight in the soap and the figure eight remains, it's ready to pour. This is called reaching 'trace', a fancy soap making term.
I use both ways to check.
Mixing with the stick blender.
Once the soap has reached 'trace', you can add 1 cup of pulverized oats. Put oatmeal in a blender and whirl the oats around until they are pulverized. (This should be done ahead of time.) Stir in the oatmeal and then quickly and carefully pour the soap into molds. I like to use silicone cup cake pans. Place plastic wrap on top and put the molds someplace safe to sit overnight. Cover them with towels to keep them warm. The chemical reactions are still taking place and the soap is still 'cooking'.
After 24 hours, unmold and let air dry for 6-8 weeks. Wait the full 6 weeks or your soap may burn your skin. After that, you will have wonderful, fabulous, sudsy hand soap that will make you never want to go back to store bought 'soap' again.
Soap makers---minus neighbor, Kathy, who was taking the photo.
You might be wondering where Tom went...
Lady was lonely.
