Thursday, August 9, 2012

My Favorite Soap Recipe



1 lb of lard, just melted enough to become liquid

3/4 cup fresh goat's milk (whole cows milk will work also) partially frozen

2 oz lye (household drain cleaner lye works)

fragrance or essential oils to taste (don't use cheap oils from Walmart etc.)

First I put the lard on the stove in a pan on very low.
Use rubber gloves when working with lye. 
Measure the lye and set aside. measure the milk into a glass measuring cup and slowly, very very slowly add lye ...it should take 10 mins or so of slowly adding it and constant stirring, using a hard plastic spoon.
You can just dump the lye into the milk if you don't care about the color of the soap. The slower your pour and stir, the lighter and creamier the soap with be.  Also, if you allow the lye to heat the milk to fast, you will get a burnt milk odor to the soaps and the color will be dark yellow or  brown.

I watch the lard melting while I stir the lye/milk mixture, and quickly remove the melted lard from the stove as soon as there is not solid pieces left in the pot.
After the lye is completely dissolved into the milk, pour the melted lard into a blender and slowly add the lye/milk to it and stir with the spoon. Then turn the blender on low and bring the mixture to trace and then pour into molds...(if you want fragrance or dyes you add them at the trace and stir them to combine, or just mix a few seconds on low) (Trace is when you turn the blender off, and the consistency is similar to instant pudding before setting up. )

Let the soap set in the mold for 12 to 24 hours. Unmold and cut into bars.  The soap will be cured and ready to use in 2 weeks.   I line my soap mold with a kitchen sized trash bag to avoid leaks.  Any small box will do, according to the thickness you want your bars to be.

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