Well, I finally did it, I made my first batch of soap today.
I thought I'd get my feet wet with a simple, single oil laundry soap to start out with before I get into making shower/shampoo/shaving stuff. Going by all the articles I've read and videos I've watched, everything went as it should have.
My motto is; go big or go home
so I made a 25 pound batch roughly; 20 pounds of oil and 112 ounces of water, 45 ounces of lye. I don't know what exactly happens to the water during the cure, if it evaporates or converts or what but I'm guessing after the cure I will have about 25 pounds of soap.
I am not sure why Grandma never really taught us kids how to do stuff like soapmaking, kuchen making, and I've yet to sample an apple strudel that is as good as hers, yet nobody in the family knows how to do any of them like she did. So, we have to find our own way, I guess.
Anyway, when I know I eventually want to make a lot of something and I see the price for a 100g of lard is 0.65 and the price for a 44 pound box is 0.23 per 100g well, I go big.
I softened the lard by putting it in a pail and putting that in a tub of hot water until it was liquid-like (abour 105F) although not clear, I took my lye/water mix which was at 160F and strained that into the lard, this 'almost' was enough heat to clear the oil, it actually turned the yellowish color but it didn't quite go clear.
Prior to starting I made a mixer that would fit into a drill and used that to do most of the mixing, basically a 3/16 rod that I bent into kind of a zig-zag at the one end, it worked great.
I kept noticing it was thickening up slowly, but surely, I'd leave it sit for 5 minutes and go clean up some stuff and come back, mix again, a little bit thicker, go do something else and come back and mix again... a bit thicker again, then finally, I could see trace WooHoo!
After good trace, I poured about a gallon out into a clean bowl and put a teaspoon of cocoa powder into the remaining and mixed it in, trying to get a bit of color swirl. I didn't want to use too much cocoa as this is laundry soap and it just barely turned is a slightly darker shade, then I poured back in the un-colored soap in four big dollops and cut through a single time with the spatula, then I poured it into the mold.
I am thinking the swirls will not be very noticeable because of the very slight coloring and I think I could have mixed to a bit heavier trace before separating and adding color so they would have stayed more definite.
We'll see how it goes, I will try to get some pics when I unmold it tomorrow and cut it into bars.
I thought I'd get my feet wet with a simple, single oil laundry soap to start out with before I get into making shower/shampoo/shaving stuff. Going by all the articles I've read and videos I've watched, everything went as it should have.
My motto is; go big or go home
so I made a 25 pound batch roughly; 20 pounds of oil and 112 ounces of water, 45 ounces of lye. I don't know what exactly happens to the water during the cure, if it evaporates or converts or what but I'm guessing after the cure I will have about 25 pounds of soap. I am not sure why Grandma never really taught us kids how to do stuff like soapmaking, kuchen making, and I've yet to sample an apple strudel that is as good as hers, yet nobody in the family knows how to do any of them like she did. So, we have to find our own way, I guess.
Anyway, when I know I eventually want to make a lot of something and I see the price for a 100g of lard is 0.65 and the price for a 44 pound box is 0.23 per 100g well, I go big.
I softened the lard by putting it in a pail and putting that in a tub of hot water until it was liquid-like (abour 105F) although not clear, I took my lye/water mix which was at 160F and strained that into the lard, this 'almost' was enough heat to clear the oil, it actually turned the yellowish color but it didn't quite go clear.
Prior to starting I made a mixer that would fit into a drill and used that to do most of the mixing, basically a 3/16 rod that I bent into kind of a zig-zag at the one end, it worked great.
I kept noticing it was thickening up slowly, but surely, I'd leave it sit for 5 minutes and go clean up some stuff and come back, mix again, a little bit thicker, go do something else and come back and mix again... a bit thicker again, then finally, I could see trace WooHoo!
After good trace, I poured about a gallon out into a clean bowl and put a teaspoon of cocoa powder into the remaining and mixed it in, trying to get a bit of color swirl. I didn't want to use too much cocoa as this is laundry soap and it just barely turned is a slightly darker shade, then I poured back in the un-colored soap in four big dollops and cut through a single time with the spatula, then I poured it into the mold.
I am thinking the swirls will not be very noticeable because of the very slight coloring and I think I could have mixed to a bit heavier trace before separating and adding color so they would have stayed more definite.
We'll see how it goes, I will try to get some pics when I unmold it tomorrow and cut it into bars.
