We had a soapy Saturday! Last Saturday I made soap and canned beans.....and if you've been a long-time reader of my blog, you may have deja vu about that, for good reason. Since I've already blogged about
I'll spare you all the details and just leave you with some pictures of the soap making process!
Here are the fats melting together. This batch consists of home rendered deer tallow, coconut oil, home rendered lard, and olive oil.....
Here is the lye/water mixture in the lye pitcher....
Once the fats are all melted, you then begin to juggle your temperatures to get your fats and your lye both around 100 degrees or so, and when they are both right around those temps, you s-l-o-w-l-y pour the lye/water mixture into the fats, stirring in a continuous motion all the while.
You stir and stir and stir some more until your soap traces, then pour in into your mold and wrap it up all snug so it doesn't take cold....
Then two days later, you unwrap it and see if it "soaped"!
This batch did beautifully and produces rich, creamy lather. Of course as you'll remember from my other soap making posts, it won't pop out of the mold and I had to dig it out, but again, I mill my soap so it doesn't matter anyway. By the time I'm done with it, it will be lovely little bars of pretty soap!
I'll leave you with a soap-ish quote that I think is all too true, and all too rare...
Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.
-William Osler
Till next time....
God Bless,
That is the coolest. I have always wanted to make lye soap but never gotten around to it. And deer tallow! Awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I really do like making it. I've been out of homemade soap for a really long time and have missed it greatly! This is the first time I've had any deer tallow to use, so that really was exciting!
DeleteI think it's wonderful that you make your own soaps. I've made French milled soap recipes from grated soap, plain and goats milk, then made some melt and pour glycerine soaps too. Not the same as what you do at all, but a pleasure to do.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week ~ FlowerLady
Thanks FlowerLady! It is relaxing and I make jewelweed soap for poison ivy with the glycerine soap! You have a good week as well and enjoy that lovely new bedding :)
DeleteDo you have jewelweed growing there? I have tried to get some started, but haven't been successful. On the other hand, we have tons of poison ivy growing everywhere and I am very allergic. Nice, huh? Thanks for another hint to get our soap made.
ReplyDeleteFern
Hi Fern! Yes we do have it growing wild here. Our Uncle has an abundance of it growing along his creek. I haven't had to make any new for a long while though. They say it usually grows very near poison ivy. Is it native to your neck of the woods? Thanks for commenting! :)
Deletewonderful! Home made soap is so lovely
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteI love making soap! I do mine cold-process, too. I love that you used home-rendered deer tallow, how cool! My favorite bars are usually make with goat's milk- I love how creamy the lather is. :)
ReplyDeleteI always mill my bars, and add the goat's milk then and yes they are rich and creamy!
DeleteWow, your blog covered two things which, as a smallholder, I think I should have a go at! Could you point me in the direction of a book I can buy which would help me know how to make soap (I see you have one on your pile of towels), but I'm OK with canning beans, it is just that I haven't got round to doing some yet! And back to soap.....I have tallow from our sheep, and lard from our pigs, so could I make soap from them? Thanks Vx
ReplyDeleteHi Vera! I use The Complete Soapmaker by Norma Coney. You can pick it up off of ebay for around 5 bucks or so? That's the book I use and has been helpful to me. Yes you could certainly use sheep tallow and lard! The only reason I used a bit of coconut oil is because it makes a nice lather. Soap made from only tallow and lard will get you nice and clean, it just won't have as much lather. I also enjoy this site http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp if you are wanting to create your own recipe with what you've got on hand. The book I have has a recipe in it called Homesteaders Soap and it only calls for lard and tallow I believe? Anyway, if there is anything I can do to help just give a shout! :)
DeleteTesting to see if my comment shows up.
ReplyDeleteYup.....it's here!! :)
DeleteI'm really enjoying catching up on all of your blog posts... and I can see how happy you are blogging so much more again because you're totally in your element - that is, with animals all around you to take care of and then they take care of you (er, they get eaten, you know what I mean!). So happy for you that you found your groove again!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You are totally right..........I had nothing to talk about before...........LOL! Thanks so very much for taking the time to comment! :)
DeleteHow long do you have to let your soap set,before you can use it?
ReplyDeleteHi Cindy! Thanks for stopping by and commenting! It doesn't take too long, about a week or so? I usually re-mill mine, by grating it and melting it down with goat's milk, then pouring it into the mold and letting it set, but this batch I've been using in the shower as is for a while. Now that my girls have freshened again I'll mill some down. You can click on the soap tag at the bottom of the post and it will take you to all my soap making posts. Thanks again for stopping by! :)
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