Dedicated Soaping Pot?

I have a large pot that I use exclusively for soap making. However, for very small batches (i.e., 2lbs) I use a small pot from my kitchen. After I use it, I wash it by hand and then run it through my dishwasher a second time to ensure it's sparkly clean.

I've seen some posts were people state they will not use their pot for cooking again. However, if it's been thoroughly washed, I would expect there to be no trace of lye or oils remaining. Is there something I'm missing???

We eat lye in small amounts and oils as well, so for me that is never the issue.

It's the scents that get me! Having food tasting of an FO would not be fun, which is why I keep it all apart.

Technically I suppose if you're using stainless steel - then nothing should transfer. Scents, Lye, or otherwise...

But I'm kind of noivious about that kind of thing. (Ever since the brownie fiasco...... this one time, late late at night, I made brownies in a 9x9 silicone dish and they tasted horrendous. Horr.En.DOUS.)

I don't take any chances now.

Soapthings are soapthings..
Kitchenware is kitchenware.

I have no problem using my stainless steel soaping stuff for cooking, but not silicone or plastics.

IrishLass

I use my stainless steel stuff for both.

IrishLass said:

I have no problem using my stainless steel soaping stuff for cooking, but not silicone or plastics.

IrishLass

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Super! Thanks! This is exactly what I do as well. I only reuse the stainless steel pot in the kitchen. The rest of my "gear" remains dedicated to soaping and is not used for cooking. Mostly because, even after washing, plastic & silicon items still retain a very faint residual smell from the EO/FO.

Thanks for all the replies! Very much appreciated!

For me, it's a threefold reason:

1. Safety in case I don't wash off things as well as I should
2. Scent/color transfer - I don't want to ruin my nice cooking things
3. I leave my soaping pots for a few days before cleaning them and would miss a cooking pot if it was out of commission that long.

I just use super cheap plastic buckets from the painter's aisle at the hardware store. Each one cost less than a dollar... My batches are all in the 2ish lb range.

I do. I have a set of cheap stainless steel stock pots - the kind that come in a set of 3. The bottoms of these things are so thin that if you try to cook in them, you burn the bottom layer of food. They are only good for boiling water and making soap. I have a few high quality stainless steel cooking pots that are occassionally pressed into service as soap pots, but only rarely.

I actually have seperate cooking and soaping ingredients. I have a small canister of Lou Ann coconut oil in the fridge for cooking. I don't like the idea of eating the year-old bucket of coconut oil that's been sitting in my basement, even though it's probably fine. I buy cheap ground cinnamon for my soap, and cook with Penzey's cinnamon (Extra Fancy).

goteeguy said:

I have a large pot that I use exclusively for soap making. However, for very small batches (i.e., 2lbs) I use a small pot from my kitchen. After I use it, I wash it by hand and then run it through my dishwasher a second time to ensure it's sparkly clean.

I've seen some posts were people state they will not use their pot for cooking again. However, if it's been thoroughly washed, I would expect there to be no trace of lye or oils remaining. Is there something I'm missing???

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OK. I'm gonna get on my soapbox here (ba dum bum!). I think sometimes... just sometimes... we all go a little overboard with the whole soap safety thing to the point that it intimidates people from enjoying the fun of this hobby. We DO have to be careful and those of us with experience need to set good examples and practice safety, but it's lye, not ebola. My dad used to keep the stuff the the shed in a can to scrub it down the driveway. I can promise you my sharecropper Mamaw didn't have a special pot for making "lye soap" on the porch. It was the same one she used to wash clothes and boil the water and dip the dead chicken in before we plucked it and fried it up for Sunday dinner.... probably in lard

All kidding aside. I once had someone caution me to buy a separate crock pot for HP soap. Seriously? While I do have separate bowls and measuring cups (all from the Dollar Store) for soaping, I use the same stick blender (gasp) that I use in the kitchen, and I may occasionally grab a bowl or two from the cabinet. I have extra silicone spatulas for soaping, but I also grab the ones out of the kitchen drawer if I need them. Everything goes into the dishwasher, with the regular dishes, for cleanup.

Pardon my typos, but I'm blind and missing 3 fingers.

I completely agree. Unless a fragrance is lingering that I don't want in my food, or if I have a nice serving spoons that I don't want the finish eaten off of by lye, then I use them interchangeably. I mean, heck, I cook with lye, so of course it's going to touch my cooking stuff! It's a matter of convenience, for me, to have a separate cooking and soaping equipment.

girlishcharm2004 said:

I mean, heck, I cook with lye, so of course it's going to touch my cooking stuff!

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Me, too! It's the only way to make great pretzels, if you ask me.

IrishLass

I actually do have a separate soap crock pot. But I got it for $3 at the Salvation Army, and I just got it b/c I"m worried about a soap volcano ruining a good cooking pot. Also, those FOs can stick in the darndest places. I put some Sugarplum soap in the over to stay warm overnight, and several days later I re-heated some pizza and it had the lingering after taste of sugarplum.

For me it's not about lye paranoia, so much as about FOs sticking around.

dixiedragon said:

For me it's not about lye paranoia, so much as about FOs sticking around.

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I hear ya. That's why I don't use any of my plastic and silicone soaping stuff for food.


IrishLass

I confess, I've actually used my silicone spatulas interchangably for food and soap for a long time. Most it's been fine, though I once regretted licking cake batter off of the spatula and tasting Green Tweed. I bought 2 silicone spatulas dedicated to soaping, mainly b/c on my other spatulas, you can seperate the head from the stick. Which is good for washing, but the thick soap kept pulling off the head of the spatula. So my new soap only silicone spatulas are one piece, no detachable head. (Big Lots, $4 each, btw)

I'll say this, I am amazed that my stick blender hasn't been destroyed by the lye, but it looks as new as the day I took it out of the box. Oh, and I did learn the hard way how corrosive some concentrated EOs and FOs are. They will ruin plastic measuring spoons...mine look almost melted, but again they were cheap from the $$$ store.

DW - yes, I've done that! I have stainless steel measuring spoons and glass measuring cups that I use interchangably, but the plastic measuring spoons are FOOD ONLY.

I must be the only person that cannot pour EOs/FOs without dribbling them all over the place. I actually use pipettes to siphon them out of the bottle.

snappyllama said:

I must be the only person that cannot pour EOs/FOs without dribbling them all over the place. I actually use pipettes to siphon them out of the bottle.

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I do this too...and still manage to make a mess

I'm with the majority on this one. I use a stainless steel saucepan for my lye and a stainless steel stock pot for my soap batter, and I use both of them for cooking also. I would not use wooden or plastic utensils, but I have no problem at all with the pots.

IrishLass said:

Me, too! It's the only way to make great pretzels, if you ask me.

IrishLass

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Ok. Can't stand it. Somebody please send me the lye pretzel recipe :think: