| Note: I put together this recipe before I became a vegetarian. I do not make this any longer because of the lard. You could substitute Shortening, or some other oils for the lard, but the temperatures might need to be a little different. I have not tried it myself yet so don't really know what the temperatures should be.
- 3
pints of ice cold goat milk
- 1
12 oz. can of Red Devil Lye
- 5
1/2 pounds of lard
- 2
oz. glycerin
- 2
T borax
- 1/3
Cup Honey
Be
very careful when handling lye! Wear rubber gloves.
You
can find the lye in the drain cleaner section of your grocery store,
make sure it say 100% lye. Before you buy the lye, shake the can and
listen to it to make sure it's free flowing and has no lumps in it
(you do not want lumpy lye).
Glycerin (liquid)
can be found at your drug store. It gives the soap more moisturizing
qualities.
Borax
can de found in the laundry detergent section of the grocery store. This boots
cleaning ability, soften the water and helps with sudsing.
Lye heats the milk up very hot; the sugar in the milk will "caramelize" and this soap will be tan in color.
Soap
made with 100% lard will not lather a whole lot, but make a good cleaning,
very gentle, moisturizing soap. Lathering and cleaning ability have
nothing to do with one another.
Use
a stainless steel or unchipped enamel pot for your soapmaking. Slowly (very slowly) pour the lye into the ice cold milk (the milk could even have small bits of frozen milk floating in it), stirring
constantly with a wooden spoon. The milk will heat up very quickly
due to the addition of the lye.
If you add the lye too fast, the milk may scorch and curdle. The milk
will turn an orange color and curdle a little bit, don't worry. Add
the honey. Let the mixture cool down to 85*.
While
the lye/milk is cooling, warm the lard to 90*. Slowly pour the
lard into the lye/milk, stirring constantly. Add the glycerin,
borax.
The best thing to stir soap with is an electric handheld "stick blender". You really need to stir the heck out of the soap mixture it to get it to "trace". The "wimpier" and/or slower your stirring is, the longer it will take to trace. You cannot just let it be, or go away and let it sit; if you do not stir constantly, the soap will never "trace".
Add the glycerin and
borax.
Keep
stirring until the mixture starts to thicken like thin pudding nice
"traces". The mixture "traces" when a small amount of the solution
drizzled across the top of the main solution's surface leaves a faint
pattern before sinking back into the mass. A trace should be reached
within 10 to 20 minutes of hand stirring, or 5 to 10 minutes of stirring
with a "stick blender".
Add any essential oils you wish to add to sence the soap at this point. Stir it in well.
Pour the mixture into your molds.
I use the box my keyboard came in lined with a plastic kitchen garbage
bag. Cover the mold and then cover it with a blanket. Leave
it undisturbed overnight.
The
next day you can cut the soap into bars using fishing line. Stack
the bars on a cookie sheet lined with a large paper bag. It is not ready to use yet; the mixture needs to "saponify" and cure.
Let the
soap cure for at least 6 weeks before use.
Be aware, you
cannot make bar soap at home without lye (sodium hydroxide).
Do not worry, correctly made and cured homemade soap is milder than
anything you can buy. The fats and lye go through a chemical reaction,
or "saponify" and become soap; the end product no longer contains
any lye.
The recipe above
is a very simple goat milk soap recipe, and it is the only recipe I
have any experience with. People often write me and ask about using
different kinds of fats and oils. Yes, you can use other fats and oil,
but each fat/oil has it's own particular temperature it needs to be
heated to. Please don't ask me what these temps are, because I don't
know. You may want to see the links below more more information on soapmaking.
Soap
Making Links:
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