HP Cookoff?

LBussy · Mar 28, 2015

Has anyone ever figured how much water they lost during a HP cook?

I just did a 1# batch of my shaving soap. I had been running on the assumption that the long cook I use (2 hours) was responsible for the hardness of the finished product in a KOH-only soap. Only thing is, I only lost 3.5% of my batch weight and that's including waste on utensils and such. I do cook with the lid on but I still thought I'd lose more.

I used a 33% lye concentration so my estimated (with no waste) water content is now around 40%. I find that interesting and it's not at all what I expected.

Since this is the first time I've weighed after, I have nothing to compare it to. Has anyone else done this exercise?

Chefmom · Mar 28, 2015

I looked in my recipe log book and I found a large batch that I made note on the final soap weight after unmolding

The oils, water and lye add up to 9 pounds 12 ounces. I made note that the soap after I took it out of the mold (if I remember correctly I just stacked the pre cut loaves on the scale...nothing scientific) was 9 pounds 5 ounces. So with loss to sticking to the crock pot and spoons and bowls and things thats a loss of 7 ounces.

LBussy · Mar 28, 2015

Well that's 4.4% so we're in the ballpark for sure. I surely would have thought it would lose more water.

JBot · Mar 28, 2015

I tried to evaluate the very same thing just yesterday! Part of my quest to solve the Mystery of the Warping Planes, which I know deep down in my soul has something to do with the way moisture is lost while curing.

I did my best to account for the waste on spoons, etc. by scraping up every little bit, wadding them up into "cookies," and weighing those, too. Then I assumed that approximately one ounce was lost in the crumbs that I couldn't catch.

It was a big batch, almost 150 ounces, cooked in the oven in stainless steel pots with the lids on. I cooked at 195F (but I have a "slow" oven, the soap never seems to get hotter than 180F) for 65 minutes.

My result: 5.62 ounces lost in the cook. 3.77%. Which supports my belief that HP isn't truly ready to use any sooner than CP; it's just saponified faster. It might be harder to the touch faster than CP, but it still has a lot of drying to do.

Next time I'm going to weigh my pots -- in grams!! -- immediately before and after cooking. No spoons, no crumbs; hopefully that will reduce the margin of error.

LBussy · Mar 29, 2015

JBot said:
My result: 5.62 ounces lost in the cook. 3.77%. Which supports my belief that HP isn't truly ready to use any sooner than CP; it's just saponified faster. It might be harder to the touch faster than CP, but it still has a lot of drying to do.

Well remember I'm making shaving soap here so I really don't go for drying. The chemical reactions are 99.9% (completely made-up number) done because of the heat speeding reactions. My soaps go in tubs/tins and being a little softer than a long-cured C soap is actually desirable.

I'm surprised that we are so consistent - and encouraged that my numbers were good.

JBot · Mar 30, 2015

Oh! I did know that (or anything, really) about shaving soap. Interesting. Is it used as-is from the tub, or do you take out a little bit and lather it with water to make it "bigger"?

LBussy · Mar 30, 2015

JBot said:
Oh! I did know that (or anything, really) about shaving soap. Interesting. Is it used as-is from the tub, or do you take out a little bit and lather it with water to make it "bigger"?

You "load" it onto a shaving brush, then work it into lather in a bowl. Some folks "face lather" where they wet the face and work the loaded brush on their face.

I'm 99% done with an article on shaving soap ... just going over final edits.

HP Cookoff?

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