Soap Making

When making your own soap, it's always important to follow a few basic steps. The first is being sure you start with quality ingredients. I personally used beef tallow, (fat gathered from around the kidneys.) I have gotten terrific tallow and "meaty" tallow before, so when shopping, be picky if you can. Tallow is a flaky, compact fat that's white in color, although will sometimes contain blood or tissue from the beef. The less red that it contains, the cleaner and purer the fat. Most of the time, I buy about 6 to 7 pounds of tallow for one recipe of soap.

To start, after i have driven the butcher crazy with being so picky, I will dice the fat into pieces about a half inch square. Yes, it takes alot of time and your hands will get incredibly greasy, but i don't have chapped hands for a week! It's better to dice it small, though not too small, 1/2 inch works for me. I then will get out my stainless steel stockpot and pile it all in. I turn the heat on low and cover the pot. This is one of the places where you must be patient. Do not turn the heat up too high low-medium is all the higher you should go in my experience. You run the chance of scorching the fat if the heat is too high, and all the work can be lost as the fat takes on the burned smell. Nasty smelling fat can mean nasty smelling soap! Stir the fat around every few minutes from side to side and top to bottom. You'll start to see the fat turning to a clear/golden liquid. This is a good sign! So far so good!

Last time I processed tallow, it took about an 45 minutes for all the fat to melt down. I know I could do it faster, but I tend to be on the safe side than loose all my work. I let the fat cool a bit, then I take a ladle / strainer and scoop the leftover pieces into a metal bowl. I use metal simply because I do it while the fat is still hot and it would melt plastic and could break glass. Once I get all the fat pieces out of the liquid, I scoop the leftover fat into my potato ricer and squeeze the liquid fat from it into the stockpot. Be careful not to squeeze too hard, otherwise you will end up with small pieces of fat you will have to fish out later.

Now that you have squeezed all the fat from the pieces, you can discard those if you wish. There are some soapers that will add water to the leftovers, boil it and then cool it down in the fridge. You can then scoop the remaining fat from the top, drain and add to the fat for making soap. I never went that far as I am always looking forward to just getting down to the fun part! But, I may do just that when TSHTF and I have to waste nothing.

The last thing I do is use cheese cloth the filter the fat. I have used coffee filters, paper towels and old rags. I like cheesecloth, but old rags work very well. They are just difficult to clean up.

Now, you have your fat for soapmaking! Whew! Now I will warn you, it will make your house smell like a dirty greasy fast food kitchen.

The next step is the actual process of soap making.

This thread is part 2 of my basic soap making post. If you haven’t already read it, go to my first post “Rendering tallow”. In this post I will introduce you to basic soap making. I will touch upon some finer points I have picked up since I started making my own soap. I won’t be able to teach you everything I know, but this will be a good starter for you. By the end of this, you’ll have a better idea of what is involved and whether this is something you would like to pursue as a hobby or just keep in the back of your mind and notebook for later.

You are going to need to gather some items. You will need a stainless steel stockpot, some wooden spoons, a Pyrex measuring cup (at least one that will hold 2 cups, maybe more if you have it,) a thermometer, a kitchen scale (you will need to weigh things in pounds and ounces), some bowls, towels for cleanup and have your counter tops cleaned off!

This recipe is the very first one I tried from Kathy Miller’s soap making page. It’s very simple and introduces you to the nuances of the saponification process. Saponification is the chemical reaction that takes places while soap making. It’s a continuous action that occurs from the time you add the lye to the fats to the aging of the soap. It’s really cool when you get into it. I get a real kick out of the whole thing. Anyways, her site is where it all started for me. I now pick out my own types of fats and oils and make my own recipes for soap. Don’t get silly now if this is your first time! You could ruin a lot of material and possibly hurt yourself if you get creative without knowledge! Hang on and try this one first. It’s a basic one that you can add spices and essential oils to for a nice balanced bath soap or keep it basic for a good overall cleaning soap, for bath, home and laundry.

First things first, safety! Wear goggles and wear gloves during this part of the process. Absolutely! Even the slightest amount of lye splashed onto your face or in your eyes can be hazardous.

Into a glass Pyrex bowl, pour 5 cups of COLD water . Be sure it’s cold, once you add the lye, you’ll notice the water gets real hot. Weigh out 13 ounces of lye.

(Aside-Lye can be tricky to find, I now get it at my old hardware store in town. They can get me most anything I want. Lye is now sold as drain cleaner. Be sure it is 100% lye, no other dyes or chemicals added. Do not substitute anything else for lye, I cannot state this enough. One hundred percent lye. Keep looking if you can’t find it, it’s still sold. The actual chemical name is Sodium Hydroxide. )

Okay…weight out exactly 13 ounces of lye. Slowly add the lye to the water, not the other way around. You could have a huge mess on your hands (and face.) As you add the lye to the water, stir, stir, stir. Be sure you keep stirring until all the crystals are dissolved into the water. At this point, you should notice the water being very hot. This is normal, don’t worry. Now let the lye come down in temperature to 90-95 degrees F. While this is cooling, melt your tallow that you have rendered and bring to 120-130 degree F.

Once you have both the lye and fat at the correct temperature, add the lye to the fat slowly while stirring. Add all the lye and continue to stir. Now if you just plan to stir by hand, you will probably stir for about 20-30 minutes. Try to make soap in warmer temperatures. I have made soap in a colder kitchen on the floor and had it seize up a bit too quickly before it is finished processing. Kathy Miller recommends using a stick blender during the stirring process. I’ve used it during the last 10 to 15 minutes of stirring and it works beautifully. What you are looking for is the mixture to come to a “trace” where you can draw a line across the top of the mixture. It’s at this point you can add any essential oil you might want to try and maybe some finely ground oatmeal or dried flower blossoms. Keep stirring until you notice the top is getting dull and you have a ring forming around the inside of your pot. Now your soap is ready to pour.

You can use soap molds, old plastic butter dishes, etc., just watch what color they are because they can stain your soap. I use a shallow cardboard box, like a lid to a copy paper box lined with freezer paper beveling the corners and taping the excess over the edge. I place the lid on a cookie sheet for stability and pour in the soap. Prepare your mold ahead of time as the soap with “seize” in the pan if it doesn’t get poured right away.

Once you have poured the soap, I top off the mold with a large piece of cardboard and cover with a folded towel and put it in the oven with the light on. I add a tray of hot water below it on the lowest shelf and shut the door, no peeking. I take out the soap the next morning and uncover and take out of the mold, cut and stack to age. I set each piece of soap on it’s widest edge and let set undisturbed for 3-4 weeks before using. The longer soap ages, the better it gets.

I know this was lengthy and I’ll just go ahead and post it. I’ll add things as I thik of them as pointers for newbies. This sounds a little complicated but don’t let that scare you. This is a lot of fun! Good luck and feel free to ask questions!

Other soaper chime in, I am sure I forgot a few things.