Lye Soap
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Aldo
It can be injurious to skin if it was not 100% Lye.
Since your two oils where olive oil and coconut oil, a safe bet would have the percentages close to a 20 80 split. Olive oil at 80% coconut oil at 20% with a 5% super fat (lye discount)
A third oil added would be good to bring your formula up a notch (nicer)
Remember it's the fatty acids in each of the fats and oils that your trying to react.
If you want...You can give me your formula, and tell me your your desired batch size and I'll help you with the math for a easy formula to follow.
It can be injurious to skin if it was not 100% Lye.
Since your two oils where olive oil and coconut oil, a safe bet would have the percentages close to a 20 80 split. Olive oil at 80% coconut oil at 20% with a 5% super fat (lye discount)
A third oil added would be good to bring your formula up a notch (nicer)
Remember it's the fatty acids in each of the fats and oils that your trying to react.
If you want...You can give me your formula, and tell me your your desired batch size and I'll help you with the math for a easy formula to follow.
Stan, Yes, I asked my Dad about the Lye soap and when it was made and I was correct. He said they butchered livestock in the fall, for curing, and said his mother made huge batches of soap in the fall afterwards. (He said that he hated the process as the door knobs in the house and other things were greasy!!) Many, many people that lived in rural areas made lye soap, esp, during WW2 because of rationing, you just couldn't go out and buy everything that one needed. That mindset never went away. Well, that makes perfect sense. It was my maternal grandmother that I remember her making it one cold autumn morning. It lasted so long, I never thought she would use it all up.
I'll never forget the smell. It's hard to explain, strong cardboard with some grease, bacon fat, yet it smelled clean.
I can't remember if they bought the lye or soaked the ashes. I'm leaning that they soaked the ashes, as nothing went to waste...never.
My grandmother made the best fried chicken I ever tasted, and I've never tasted the likes of it since. Everything she made was fresh and good. She had a knack for making a complete meal out of nothing.
I wonder how many would try to wash with that stuff in a HE washer with todays millennials?!?
I'll never forget the smell. It's hard to explain, strong cardboard with some grease, bacon fat, yet it smelled clean.
I can't remember if they bought the lye or soaked the ashes. I'm leaning that they soaked the ashes, as nothing went to waste...never.
My grandmother made the best fried chicken I ever tasted, and I've never tasted the likes of it since. Everything she made was fresh and good. She had a knack for making a complete meal out of nothing.
I wonder how many would try to wash with that stuff in a HE washer with todays millennials?!?
New Braunfels
My granny, who lived on 50 acres outside West Columbia (the first capitol of the Republic of Texas) had 13 children and, like yours, never wasted. Every day, no electricity, fresh bread and huge quantities of rice as Brazoria County produced more rice per acre at that time, than any place on earth. You remember Comet rice, Uncle Ben's, etc., from down here. She was the one with the gasoline Maytag wringer. Huge garden was her pride, it was nearly an acre. Kumquats that I remember eating as a child. A few fig trees that survived that famous fig blight.
That farm land flooded with the San Bernard after Harvey.
And I remember her killing a chicken and then eating it fried a few hours later. Grocery store chicken is completely flavorless compared to that.
My granny, who lived on 50 acres outside West Columbia (the first capitol of the Republic of Texas) had 13 children and, like yours, never wasted. Every day, no electricity, fresh bread and huge quantities of rice as Brazoria County produced more rice per acre at that time, than any place on earth. You remember Comet rice, Uncle Ben's, etc., from down here. She was the one with the gasoline Maytag wringer. Huge garden was her pride, it was nearly an acre. Kumquats that I remember eating as a child. A few fig trees that survived that famous fig blight.
That farm land flooded with the San Bernard after Harvey.
And I remember her killing a chicken and then eating it fried a few hours later. Grocery store chicken is completely flavorless compared to that.
Barry
Now that it's established that the fat came from a donner right there on the farm, let's consider it from that perspective, or your grandmother perspective.
The butchering of the hog (common in the fall) was sometimes timed by the almanac and sometimes according to the moon. Some belived that this timing affected the taste, as well as the odor of the fat. At the time of butchering, fat was sometimes sorted... meaning, separated from back fat and "leaf lard" The leaf lard is considerd the best for baking, and has less taste or odor than the back fat. After that chore came the rendering of the lard. Another process that could go wrong if not careful, and if not done under controled temps..too hot could release a odor. Most likely the rendering was your grandmothers chore. This may explain greasy door handles ect.
Once the lard was "put up" it was ready for use.
So..Later..maybe that month..when she was ready, she picked her day for the soap making.
Sounds like your grandmother used what was called pot ash for her lye solution. And that's where the "fussing" starts!
She had managed to raise the hog, go through the butchering process, and cleaned up all that mess, then the rendering process
(possibly separating the best of the fat) and putting it up for storing. All of which could have taken a turn, and gone wrong. When she decided to make the soap, she was aware that this also could go off the rails, but I'm sure she took a deep breath and powered through the last of what needed to be done with that damn hog!
For the soap making she may have done as explained above for checking her lye solution strength..a crude "Baume" method
(floating egg, or chicken feather) and also adding salt to this solution to make sure she ended up with harder bar soap instead of soft soap.
She melteted the lard (that she worked so hard to get) and if it got a little too hot, it could release a odor.
(wasn't like she had a thermostatically controlled element to work work with or a controlled environment)
Once the lard was melted she probably slowly added her lye solution and started stirring. Hopefully the kids and chickens stayed out of it and didn't distract her too much.
She may have reduced the fire as best as possible but keept "a strin" She had already prepared her molds and had them ready for the pour.
As she watched the greasy mess inside the pot slowly change into a thick gravy like substance, she wondered "what I'm I dong this for" Oh ya.. Soap!
When the soap began to sheet off the paddle, she had reached what's called trace, this would be the time that if she was gong to add scent.. this is the time to do it, but never mind..keep stirring..before it gets too thick! Hurry and pour it.
Once that was done, she could kill the fire, and leave things to rest a spell. (Grandma needed a rest too)
The next day sometime between her other chores, and after the soap had set up, she un molded and or cut into bars. She most likely had rigged up some kind of drying rack somewhere for the bars to continue to cure.
Oh but what about that damn pot outside, and the paddle? Well, not to worry, what was left is now soap and will wash out easy!
Thank God something was easy!
In a couple of months, she had a clear idea as to how this batched turned out. And if she was happy with the results.. of course she'd be proud off it. Now, see why she was! No small task given ALL considered.
Now was her soap lye heavy? Or not heavy enough? Who knows! It cleans good and didn't burn skin, so all good!
Hope I've jogged good memory's of her for you, I'm glad you got a bar of her soap back. Next time you look at it, you remember this story! LOL
Now that it's established that the fat came from a donner right there on the farm, let's consider it from that perspective, or your grandmother perspective.
The butchering of the hog (common in the fall) was sometimes timed by the almanac and sometimes according to the moon. Some belived that this timing affected the taste, as well as the odor of the fat. At the time of butchering, fat was sometimes sorted... meaning, separated from back fat and "leaf lard" The leaf lard is considerd the best for baking, and has less taste or odor than the back fat. After that chore came the rendering of the lard. Another process that could go wrong if not careful, and if not done under controled temps..too hot could release a odor. Most likely the rendering was your grandmothers chore. This may explain greasy door handles ect.
Once the lard was "put up" it was ready for use.
So..Later..maybe that month..when she was ready, she picked her day for the soap making.
Sounds like your grandmother used what was called pot ash for her lye solution. And that's where the "fussing" starts!
She had managed to raise the hog, go through the butchering process, and cleaned up all that mess, then the rendering process
(possibly separating the best of the fat) and putting it up for storing. All of which could have taken a turn, and gone wrong. When she decided to make the soap, she was aware that this also could go off the rails, but I'm sure she took a deep breath and powered through the last of what needed to be done with that damn hog!
For the soap making she may have done as explained above for checking her lye solution strength..a crude "Baume" method
(floating egg, or chicken feather) and also adding salt to this solution to make sure she ended up with harder bar soap instead of soft soap.
She melteted the lard (that she worked so hard to get) and if it got a little too hot, it could release a odor.
(wasn't like she had a thermostatically controlled element to work work with or a controlled environment)
Once the lard was melted she probably slowly added her lye solution and started stirring. Hopefully the kids and chickens stayed out of it and didn't distract her too much.
She may have reduced the fire as best as possible but keept "a strin" She had already prepared her molds and had them ready for the pour.
As she watched the greasy mess inside the pot slowly change into a thick gravy like substance, she wondered "what I'm I dong this for" Oh ya.. Soap!
When the soap began to sheet off the paddle, she had reached what's called trace, this would be the time that if she was gong to add scent.. this is the time to do it, but never mind..keep stirring..before it gets too thick! Hurry and pour it.
Once that was done, she could kill the fire, and leave things to rest a spell. (Grandma needed a rest too)
The next day sometime between her other chores, and after the soap had set up, she un molded and or cut into bars. She most likely had rigged up some kind of drying rack somewhere for the bars to continue to cure.
Oh but what about that damn pot outside, and the paddle? Well, not to worry, what was left is now soap and will wash out easy!
Thank God something was easy!
In a couple of months, she had a clear idea as to how this batched turned out. And if she was happy with the results.. of course she'd be proud off it. Now, see why she was! No small task given ALL considered.
Now was her soap lye heavy? Or not heavy enough? Who knows! It cleans good and didn't burn skin, so all good!
Hope I've jogged good memory's of her for you, I'm glad you got a bar of her soap back. Next time you look at it, you remember this story! LOL
Stan, thank-you for the thoughtful reply. Since it happened so long ago, in 1968, my memory is somewhat fuzzy on the matter, but there are instances that stand out. Now that you mention it, she did test the strength of the lye with a feather and that was another thing I had forgotten, and the drying rack. Not that I'm an expert, I'm not, but her bars of soap had definite substance to them. Heavy maybe???
When she was making the soap I knew better than to "get under her feet." No, that would have not worked at all. She WAS serious about it all.
Not long after the soap was made, Thanksgiving came around, and there was such a contrasting sense of smell in the house...but it was all good.
Now her canned goods, garden produce, jams and jellies she entered into the County Fair. That was another "serious time" that I thoughtfully declined to inject my opinion. Competition was so stiff I think some of them old ladies started sweating. But she came home with her blue, red, and white ribbons and was so proud of them. To my knowledge Lye Soap was never entered!!!!
Stan, thank-you again and yes, you did jog a couple more memories.
Barry
When she was making the soap I knew better than to "get under her feet." No, that would have not worked at all. She WAS serious about it all.
Not long after the soap was made, Thanksgiving came around, and there was such a contrasting sense of smell in the house...but it was all good.
Now her canned goods, garden produce, jams and jellies she entered into the County Fair. That was another "serious time" that I thoughtfully declined to inject my opinion. Competition was so stiff I think some of them old ladies started sweating. But she came home with her blue, red, and white ribbons and was so proud of them. To my knowledge Lye Soap was never entered!!!!
Stan, thank-you again and yes, you did jog a couple more memories.
Barry
Stan, thank-you for the thoughtful reply. Since it happened so long ago, in 1968, my memory is somewhat fuzzy on the matter, but there are instances that stand out. Now that you mention it, she did test the strength of the lye with a feather and that was another thing I had forgotten, and the drying rack. Not that I'm an expert, I'm not, but her bars of soap had definite substance to them. Heavy maybe???
When she was making the soap I knew better than to "get under her feet." No, that would have not worked at all. She WAS serious about it all.
Not long after the soap was made, Thanksgiving came around, and there was such a contrasting sense of smell in the house...but it was all good.
Now her canned goods, garden produce, jams and jellies she entered into the County Fair. That was another "serious time" that I thoughtfully declined to inject my opinion. Competition was so stiff I think some of them old ladies started sweating. But she came home with her blue, red, and white ribbons and was so proud of them. To my knowledge Lye Soap was never entered!!!!
Stan, thank-you again and yes, you did jog a couple more memories.
Barry
When she was making the soap I knew better than to "get under her feet." No, that would have not worked at all. She WAS serious about it all.
Not long after the soap was made, Thanksgiving came around, and there was such a contrasting sense of smell in the house...but it was all good.
Now her canned goods, garden produce, jams and jellies she entered into the County Fair. That was another "serious time" that I thoughtfully declined to inject my opinion. Competition was so stiff I think some of them old ladies started sweating. But she came home with her blue, red, and white ribbons and was so proud of them. To my knowledge Lye Soap was never entered!!!!
Stan, thank-you again and yes, you did jog a couple more memories.
Barry
My great-grandmother told us stories about how they used to take the fireplace ashes and put them in a hopper, pour water over them every day, and collect the lye. She said they had to use fireplace ashes and couldn't use stove ashes...for what reason I don't know.
Have any of you ever read or watched about how they make bio-diesel? Same principle using lye to react with the oils to make the fuel.
Have any of you ever read or watched about how they make bio-diesel? Same principle using lye to react with the oils to make the fuel.
Mayhaps
Your grandparents burned coal in the stoves, but wood in fireplaces.
It is natural plant material like wood that produces alkaline substances from their ashes. Coal OTOH has ash full of nasty things but nothing alkaline IIRC. In fact some coal is quite the opposite; acidic. Hence "acid rain" we all learned about in the 1970's as a result of all those coal burning power plants.
Think have mentioned this before but for ages the French and others laundered clothing by placing it in a large vessel with a small hole in center bottom. Then a sort of sieve like contraption containing wood ashes or whatever plant material was placed on top. Then began the "soaking" by pouring water over the ashes. As the fluid percolated down the alkaline substances (soda)released from ashes went to work on laundry. This water was collected from bottom, and the cycle repeated.
Wood and other plant material would continue to be the primary source of soda ash until the Solvay process came along. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay_process
Lye (sodium hydroxide) was historically and still used in commercial/industrial laundries. Usually as a separate "builder" or as a component of various detergents or other products. Why? Well lye does what it does best; turn fats into "soap" so it was/is used to "break" soils from fabrics. Especially laundry with high levels of fat/oil stains/soils.
As you can imagine that sort of treatment as routine was hard on laundry. But again as often have said commercial laundries are all about time. A high pH wash will get shot of blood, fats, oils and other muck faster than enzymes. Again how long your things will last is another matter.
Your grandparents burned coal in the stoves, but wood in fireplaces.
It is natural plant material like wood that produces alkaline substances from their ashes. Coal OTOH has ash full of nasty things but nothing alkaline IIRC. In fact some coal is quite the opposite; acidic. Hence "acid rain" we all learned about in the 1970's as a result of all those coal burning power plants.
Think have mentioned this before but for ages the French and others laundered clothing by placing it in a large vessel with a small hole in center bottom. Then a sort of sieve like contraption containing wood ashes or whatever plant material was placed on top. Then began the "soaking" by pouring water over the ashes. As the fluid percolated down the alkaline substances (soda)released from ashes went to work on laundry. This water was collected from bottom, and the cycle repeated.
Wood and other plant material would continue to be the primary source of soda ash until the Solvay process came along. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay_process
Lye (sodium hydroxide) was historically and still used in commercial/industrial laundries. Usually as a separate "builder" or as a component of various detergents or other products. Why? Well lye does what it does best; turn fats into "soap" so it was/is used to "break" soils from fabrics. Especially laundry with high levels of fat/oil stains/soils.
As you can imagine that sort of treatment as routine was hard on laundry. But again as often have said commercial laundries are all about time. A high pH wash will get shot of blood, fats, oils and other muck faster than enzymes. Again how long your things will last is another matter.
Stan,
your description of soap making was the best I’ve ever read. Not only was it informative, it was entertaining too. I could actually visualize the entire process from beginning to end. And the part about the drying racks made me realize where my family got the practice of letting store bought bar soap “age”.
I always buy my bar soap well in advance of when I’ll need it. When I get it home I take the plastic wrapper off the big package and stack the individually wrapped bars in a cupboard. Then I rotate my stock of bar soap using the oldest first. This allows the soap to harden and then when it is unwrapped for use it doesn’t melt away quickly and lasts longer. This is especially important with Ivory Soap, its so soft when fresh you can press a finger at least a 1/2” into the top of a new bar. I’m still very old fashioned when it comes to soap. We use Ivory Soap at all the sinks for hand washing and in the shower a deodorant soap like Zest or Dial. David likes the new body washes, but I’m still a bar soap bather.
One of these days when I get a wild hair up you know where, maybe I’ll give soap making a try with some store bought lard. Your account of soap making was inspiring. Thanks!
Eddie
your description of soap making was the best I’ve ever read. Not only was it informative, it was entertaining too. I could actually visualize the entire process from beginning to end. And the part about the drying racks made me realize where my family got the practice of letting store bought bar soap “age”.
I always buy my bar soap well in advance of when I’ll need it. When I get it home I take the plastic wrapper off the big package and stack the individually wrapped bars in a cupboard. Then I rotate my stock of bar soap using the oldest first. This allows the soap to harden and then when it is unwrapped for use it doesn’t melt away quickly and lasts longer. This is especially important with Ivory Soap, its so soft when fresh you can press a finger at least a 1/2” into the top of a new bar. I’m still very old fashioned when it comes to soap. We use Ivory Soap at all the sinks for hand washing and in the shower a deodorant soap like Zest or Dial. David likes the new body washes, but I’m still a bar soap bather.
One of these days when I get a wild hair up you know where, maybe I’ll give soap making a try with some store bought lard. Your account of soap making was inspiring. Thanks!
Eddie
Soap Saving
I got on the body wash craze back in the 80's when it was sold in department stores. I'm trying to remember the name of that brand, white plastic bottle and different colors for different scents. However, because of the amount of time I spent traveling on business, I used much more bar soap in hotel rooms. Then, we started the practice of saving those bars of soap, shampoo and all the other peripherals, donating them to our local women's refuge center. By then, body wash had fallen drastically in price and I bought travel-sized for the bag.
Like Eddie, I buy Zest and rotate it so it can dry out more. Furthermore, when I get down to the last little bit, I have a large Mason jar in that bathroom and I drop those remains in the jar. When it gets nearly full, I put some warm water in it and go at it with the Bamix to make liquid soap.
I got on the body wash craze back in the 80's when it was sold in department stores. I'm trying to remember the name of that brand, white plastic bottle and different colors for different scents. However, because of the amount of time I spent traveling on business, I used much more bar soap in hotel rooms. Then, we started the practice of saving those bars of soap, shampoo and all the other peripherals, donating them to our local women's refuge center. By then, body wash had fallen drastically in price and I bought travel-sized for the bag.
Like Eddie, I buy Zest and rotate it so it can dry out more. Furthermore, when I get down to the last little bit, I have a large Mason jar in that bathroom and I drop those remains in the jar. When it gets nearly full, I put some warm water in it and go at it with the Bamix to make liquid soap.
Let's define
our terms a bit LOL
Zest, Dove, Dial, are not soaps. They are Syndets. Meaning they are detergent bars with a soap base, with some oils added back in to conter the drying effects. They come with a longer list of ingreideants, so not 100% soap.
Ivory is still soap. When testing the P.H of say Dove (beauty bar) youl find a 5.6 P.H or there abouts
The ivory will still test out as alkaline, like normal soap.
When I mentioned "Lye Heavy" above, I was referring to the chemical compostion. Not to the weight of the bar itself. Lye Heavy is a soap making term that has to do with the amount of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide required by weight to saponify a fat. Each fat requires a different amount of NaOH (sodium hydroxide) by weight.
I am a soap maker (simi retired) but if I was givin a chalange to make two soaps..one for cleaning, and one for bathing, and the chalange only allowed me to use one fat, and it had to be lard..then there would be two batches made.
The cleaning soap would be calculated to be slightly "lye heavy"..I'd want some free lye in that bar. I'd also try my best to purify..sometimes referred to as "proving" the soap, by re-precipitating the soap with a salt solution to remove the impurities AKA the glycerin, spent lye ect. For the bath soap, my math would change to allow some of the fat to escape the the saponification process
(free fat) and I want to leave glycerin in tact. For the bath soap I'd also try everything I know to improve the quality of it for skin use. I might use coconut water, coconut milk, goats milk to use as part of the water phase. Maybe add Colloidal Oatmeal, maybe some aloe, vitamin E oil...anything to improve it.
Both bars would still be considerd "Lye Soap" because the only fat used was lard. The nicer one used to wash the baby, and the lye heavy one used to wash the baby's diapers!
"Grandma" was forced into a guessing game with the science and soap making chemistry! She also only had one window of opportunity (hog butchering time) and she had to come up with a dual purpose soap to be used for everything. She had no digital scale, no store bought lye, no SAP chart, no distilled water, no calculater.
At soap making time, she had to guess at how much of her lard she'd worked so hard to get, was going to be used for cooking and how much for soaping. She couldn't turn the soap back into lard, so once made she was stuck with it, good or bad. This all had to last her a year, or until the next donor was ready. I'd rather scrub 100 toilets than to be forced to do what she had to LOL
Even with my soap making knowledge and modern soap making tools..digital scales ect It's always somewhat tense for me. Once false move can throw a batch off.
our terms a bit LOL
Zest, Dove, Dial, are not soaps. They are Syndets. Meaning they are detergent bars with a soap base, with some oils added back in to conter the drying effects. They come with a longer list of ingreideants, so not 100% soap.
Ivory is still soap. When testing the P.H of say Dove (beauty bar) youl find a 5.6 P.H or there abouts
The ivory will still test out as alkaline, like normal soap.
When I mentioned "Lye Heavy" above, I was referring to the chemical compostion. Not to the weight of the bar itself. Lye Heavy is a soap making term that has to do with the amount of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide required by weight to saponify a fat. Each fat requires a different amount of NaOH (sodium hydroxide) by weight.
I am a soap maker (simi retired) but if I was givin a chalange to make two soaps..one for cleaning, and one for bathing, and the chalange only allowed me to use one fat, and it had to be lard..then there would be two batches made.
The cleaning soap would be calculated to be slightly "lye heavy"..I'd want some free lye in that bar. I'd also try my best to purify..sometimes referred to as "proving" the soap, by re-precipitating the soap with a salt solution to remove the impurities AKA the glycerin, spent lye ect. For the bath soap, my math would change to allow some of the fat to escape the the saponification process
(free fat) and I want to leave glycerin in tact. For the bath soap I'd also try everything I know to improve the quality of it for skin use. I might use coconut water, coconut milk, goats milk to use as part of the water phase. Maybe add Colloidal Oatmeal, maybe some aloe, vitamin E oil...anything to improve it.
Both bars would still be considerd "Lye Soap" because the only fat used was lard. The nicer one used to wash the baby, and the lye heavy one used to wash the baby's diapers!
"Grandma" was forced into a guessing game with the science and soap making chemistry! She also only had one window of opportunity (hog butchering time) and she had to come up with a dual purpose soap to be used for everything. She had no digital scale, no store bought lye, no SAP chart, no distilled water, no calculater.
At soap making time, she had to guess at how much of her lard she'd worked so hard to get, was going to be used for cooking and how much for soaping. She couldn't turn the soap back into lard, so once made she was stuck with it, good or bad. This all had to last her a year, or until the next donor was ready. I'd rather scrub 100 toilets than to be forced to do what she had to LOL
Even with my soap making knowledge and modern soap making tools..digital scales ect It's always somewhat tense for me. Once false move can throw a batch off.
A bar of
Lye Soap (for cleaning) at my kitchen sink.
Lye Soap (for cleaning) at my kitchen sink.
