Trouble with Goats milk
- Thread starter Pamie
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Without more information it would be just listing all the possible problems soaping with goats milk in all various amounts could be. Not withstanding what you mean by curdled.
One thing that I suspect it is - the fats in the milk started to saponify and so you got some lumps in there.
Have you made successful batches with water? If so, try the 50/50 method - make a very strong lye solution with the NaOH and half of the liquid amount as plain water (making sure that there is at least as much water as NaOH) and then add the remaining liquid amount as milk in to the oils. You can even add in some milk powder to make the total amount of "milk" to be the same as just using liquid milk
Without more information it would be just listing all the possible problems soaping with goats milk in all various amounts could be. Not withstanding what you mean by curdled.
One thing that I suspect it is - the fats in the milk started to saponify and so you got some lumps in there.
Have you made successful batches with water? If so, try the 50/50 method - make a very strong lye solution with the NaOH and half of the liquid amount as plain water (making sure that there is at least as much water as NaOH) and then add the remaining liquid amount as milk in to the oils. You can even add in some milk powder to make the total amount of "milk" to be the same as just using liquid milk
Kamahido
Paladin of Soap
Did you freeze the goat's milk prior to adding the sodium hydroxide?
Welcome, Pamie! :wave:
It is as the others have said- the curdling is due to the lye reacting with the fats in the goat milk. There are ways to minimize that or outright prevent that from happening by changing your method of milk soaping (thankfully, there's more than one way to make milk soap, such as using the 'frozen method' or the less fussy 'split method', or using the powdered goat milk method, or using the concentrated canned GM method...)
I myself use what is known as the 'split method' of milk soaping (i.e., the 50/50 method that the good Gent mentioned above ^^^), because I'm all about using less fussy methods if they work well and produce the desired results in my soap, and the split method just happens to be one of those methods.
In the split method, I dissolve the lye for my batch into an equal amount of my batch water by weight and set aside. For the remainder of my required water amount for my batch, I use fresh, refrigerated goat milk (the Meyenberg brand from a carton), adding it directly into my melted oils before or just after adding in my prepared water/lye solution. That will give me about a 30% goat-milk soap. If I want my batch to have a 100% concentration of milk as my total water/liquid amount, I just dissolve as much Meyenberg powdered goat-milk into my refrigerated goat milk to bring the concentration up to 100% and add it in the same manner to my melted oils/fats. With this method there is no curdling and no burning of the milk, etc...., and it cures out to a light off-white color.
IrishLass
It is as the others have said- the curdling is due to the lye reacting with the fats in the goat milk. There are ways to minimize that or outright prevent that from happening by changing your method of milk soaping (thankfully, there's more than one way to make milk soap, such as using the 'frozen method' or the less fussy 'split method', or using the powdered goat milk method, or using the concentrated canned GM method...)
I myself use what is known as the 'split method' of milk soaping (i.e., the 50/50 method that the good Gent mentioned above ^^^), because I'm all about using less fussy methods if they work well and produce the desired results in my soap, and the split method just happens to be one of those methods.
In the split method, I dissolve the lye for my batch into an equal amount of my batch water by weight and set aside. For the remainder of my required water amount for my batch, I use fresh, refrigerated goat milk (the Meyenberg brand from a carton), adding it directly into my melted oils before or just after adding in my prepared water/lye solution. That will give me about a 30% goat-milk soap. If I want my batch to have a 100% concentration of milk as my total water/liquid amount, I just dissolve as much Meyenberg powdered goat-milk into my refrigerated goat milk to bring the concentration up to 100% and add it in the same manner to my melted oils/fats. With this method there is no curdling and no burning of the milk, etc...., and it cures out to a light off-white color.
IrishLass
As a total newbie, I love how everyone here is so helpful. (I've made a grand total of two batches....yesterday/today....and can't get the first batch from yesterday out of their dang molds).
Since I (ahem, don't laugh) don't own a stick blender....I wonder if not whisking enough quickly enough contributes to the fat in the milk acting oddly? I was a bit impatient tonight and dumped the oils/fat in kinda quickly even though the recipe said add them slowly.
Good luck with the goat milk soaps, Pamie! Do you have your own goats? Mine are Nubian. I tried the frozen method, and both went to trace so...here's hoping.
Since I (ahem, don't laugh) don't own a stick blender....I wonder if not whisking enough quickly enough contributes to the fat in the milk acting oddly? I was a bit impatient tonight and dumped the oils/fat in kinda quickly even though the recipe said add them slowly.
Good luck with the goat milk soaps, Pamie! Do you have your own goats? Mine are Nubian. I tried the frozen method, and both went to trace so...here's hoping.
