Soap Making: Remembering the Little Tricks

A couple of months go I rescued some palm oil from the trash bin.  Several pounds of palm oil actually.  It has been sitting in my kitchen waiting on me to make it into soap.  I haven't made soap in about 6 years and so I am a little rusty. Okay a lot rusty. But I got out my handy dandy book and read up just so I would not screw up.  I was prepared, right?  Wrong.  Little things that I had forgotten led to some mess and now some rework to save all of the effort.

To start with, my soap supplies have been stored under the house for the last 4 years.  My wooden molds are a little warped.  My gloves and plastic mold liners are trash. The labels on the bottles of essential oil and fragrances are smeared.  But undaunted Tatianna and I pressed forward. 

I figured out the fat/oil to lye ratio for a 1# batch and then quadrupled it.  That was the first mistake.  You see while a 1/4 of an ounce less Lye doesn't make a big difference in a 1# batch, a whole ounce does in a 4 # batch.  We got grainy soap.  So in an in order to save the ingredients and effort we will have to re batch the soap.  But we will need to wait until it has set up some more.  Still that lesson was learned and now we won't make that mistake again.  I think I was more careful with my calculations the first time I made soap.  I was a little to cavalier this time.

Mistake # 2; we lined the molds with butcher paper, we've used it before with great success.  Except that the butcher paper we currently have while excellent for wrapping meat, is not good for soap making.  This paper has a sizing on it instead of a plastic coating.  Some of the soap oils and soda ash seeped through and glued the soap & paper to the mold.  Since the soap was grainy it was not too hard to chop it out of the mold. Now I need to go to the Dollar Store and get some of those cheap plastic party table cloths to make my liners with.  They work really well and are reusable.

My next mistake could have been tragic.  I have two pitchers designated for mixing up the lye and water. I had forgotten how much the Lye foams up once it is added to the water.  I tried to mix up all the lye for one batch in one pitcher.   We had Lye all over the counter and floor.  I cleaned it up with some old towels.  And since I didn't have an vinegar to neutralize the lye I grabbed some lemon juice and poured it over the area.   Fortunately none of us got burned. 

One trick I did remember was that the soap came to trace faster using the stick blender.  Now I need a new stick blender for the kitchen.  One small batch started to form lumps before coming to trace, we just used the blender to smooth them out.  That batch by the way turned out beautifully.

Somethings I know.  I still like the whole soap making process.  It makes you feel a little like a witch or sorcerer stirring up that pot of ingredients adding a little of this and a little of that.  Ingenuity is still a major component of crafting.  Necessity may be the mother of invention but common sense and wisdom rule the world.  Skills that our great grandmothers practiced out of necessity should not be lost because of the conveniences of our time.  It may be more expensive for me to make my soap but the process is worth the expense. 

Also I feel connected to my ancestors when I do it.  I love the story of how my ancestor Hannah Foote was making soap when and Indian raiding party attacked.  Her husband was out hunting and she was alone with the children.  She was getting the lye ready (I do buy my lye but I may have to learn to make it one day) when the Indians attacked.  She threw the hot lye on them grabbed her kids and ran into the woods to hide.  What an intelligent lady.  I come from a long line of strong intelligent women.  They are probably up in Heaven shaking their heads saying why on earth is she doing that when she can just go to the store and buy it. But I know it is more than the effort that makes my soap special.

Lessons Learned:
1. Do calculations for the size batch you are making.
2. Mix up lye in small amounts and then combine.
3. Always have Vinegar on hand.
4. Take the time to get the supplies you need or are use to.
5. Make lemonade, mistakes are not always the end of the world.
6. Don't wait for years to do things you like to do.  Skills get rusty.
7. Make notes in your reference books on things that worked for you. (in case you wait six years to do it again)