Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Because it is simply fat that is needed to combine with an alkaline, both animal and vegetable oils
can be used. Tallow and olive oil are common choices, though a few oils are usually combined
together for their various benefits. Coconut oil, for example, will lather; olive oil will moisturize.
The so-called “cold” process of saponification … isn't. Heat is still involved, as well as two pots you
don't mind losing to a soap-making addiction. One will be for the lye and milk, and the other will
be for the oils. Before you put anything on the stove, make sure your molds are ready to fill with
soap as soon as it is ready. Small boxes and pans can work, as well as muffin tins. Line them with
wax paper or grease them with a cheap cooking spray, though, so the soap doesn't stick when you
try to pop it out of the mold.
Gently heat the measured oils in the larger of the two pots, watching the temperature carefully so
that you don't make it too hot for the milk. Heating the oil will melt any butters or solids that you
used. As soon as they are all melted together, or close, as is the case with cocoa and Shea butters,
turn off the heat and set the pot in the sink.
If the oil is not hotter than 100°F, slowly pour the milk and lye mixture into the oil. It is important
to do it in that order, as pouring the oil into the lye could cause a different and potentially danger-
ous reaction. Stir carefully as you pour. Stirring is the catalyst here, and at one time, it would take
an hour of stirring before getting it where you wanted. No wonder soap was a luxury! You can fill
the empty lye container with vinegar and water so that the container will start to clean a bit while
you stir your lye and oil mixture to help save time on the cleanup process.
Today, we have immersion blenders and stick blenders to get the job done for us. Stir it around in
your mixture, then turn it on and blend for a bit. Go back and forth between stirring with and
without the motor running. The blender is your very good friend, and you want it to last for many
soap batches to come!
Thanks to the blender, you should start to see it thicken very soon. The goal here is something
called trace, which is roughly the thickness of pudding. At this point, your soap will not come
undone, so to speak. It will not separate back into lye and liquids. It is so named because if you
drizzle some of the mixture back into the pot, it will leave a traced marking across the top where it
drizzled.
When it is well mixed and nearing or at trace, it's time to add in any other ingredients you had
planned to use: essential oils, dyes, herbs, flowers, what have you. You need to work somewhat
quickly. After it reaches trace, it will begin to set up, and you don't want a pan-sized bar of soap.
Pour the soap into the mold, and then wait.
Let it sit in the mold uncovered. Some instructions will have you cover or insulate it, but goat's
milk produces heat, making covering unnecessary. In roughly a day or two, you will be able to
remove the soap from the mold and cut it into bars. Wait until it is no longer smooshy when the
knife hits it, but not so long that it is too brittle and difficult to slice.
